Only what is real can nourish

Walking inside Hobby Lobby recently, I was so tempted to buy the new colorful synthetic blooms of artificial flowers on sale for our garden. What stopped me was the memory I cannot erase of just last summer (2017) how beautiful our backyard looked (so many colorful breathtaking flowers) that the previous home owners had nurtured and planted around the house. Our backyard (pictures below) was flourishing! Not only did it look amazing, we were all mesmerized by the stunning butterflies, red-robins, bees, bunnies and so many of God’s creatures that came to our home for their needed daily nourishment.

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I stood for a moment holding one giant hot pink flower made of tin. This is impressive! I thought. But that’s where it ends. Fake things can only impress. They are lifeless and can therefore give no life. They may cut out the trouble and sweat that goes into planting, nurturing a thriving garden, but all artificial flowers can do is look perfect every season (though of course they remain fruitless). And that was why I put the flower back. I don’t want a life that looks impressive. I want a life that bears fruit and nourishes many. A life that has undergone the undesirable, but necessary due process of struggling out the dirt to finally bear real fruit.

If the towering Sunflower in our garden was to ask God “What is my purpose?” I am pretty certain, God would answer “I have put you out there to tell a story, to display my glory AND to produce (nectar, pollen and seeds for this season and the next).” The flowers don’t complain that the bees are using them for honey and the apple tree does not fuss over how many more apples were taken from her. They simply live out their purpose.

And so with that I made a decision. I ordered a hoe. I must till the ground, plant the seed, water the seed and wait patiently for the seed to germinate to do what it was truly designed to do; and that is to give life!

Unfortunately, retailers report a surge in sales of artificial plants, blooms and so many other things lately. It’s hard not to see that this is the general direction many of our lives are headed. Many posts are solely posted simply to impress, not to nourish anyone. God is constantly sending people your way. They are either finding food or leaving in frustration and disbelief. To be authentic, you must be willing to accept everything that comes with becoming real. Yes, some seasons will call for you and I to endure some serious darkness and isolation in the dirt where God has planted us. Our lives may even go through soggy wet seasons of tears, messy muddy seasons of floundering with sin and messing up, lonely obscure holes where we struggle for our new identities in Christ but this we must do in-spite the fact that no one yet knows our names or celebrates our beauty or our blooms!

That coveted season does surely come!  After the dry season, the cold season and even our own fear of dying to self or dying at all… but remember, you are planted, not buried. A fruitful season is coming! You will bloom and you will bear fruit, but not just to be impressive.  Your beauty must contribute to creations collective display of God’s glory! YET, even that season will also be for a time! So we are not to get lost in our prime seasons of (strength, youth, health, popularity, power, money or commerce). People will automatically flock to you for nourishment when you bloom where you are planted, but always remember, it is for a purpose and for a time. Some may be thankful, others thankless, but as long as you are doing what God had in mind when HE made you, you can ENJOY your season to nourish others and bloom to your VERY brightest capacity!

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail (Isaiah 58:11)

For HIS glory!

Journey well.