Bloom Where You Are Planted

I love sunflowers. We try to plant some every year. The last couple of summers the grasshoppers have eaten them before they could flower. But this year they are beautiful.

I went out the other day to take pictures of them and had the nicest surprise. Somehow, a marigold seed had gotten in with the sunflower seeds, and at the base of a huge, very tall sunflower a tiny little marigold is blooming. It is growing next to a towering sunflower. It is so pretty. Of course, I took a picture of it, too.

Several years ago we had a pastor who had a poster that said "Bloom Where You Are Planted". If I remember correctly, it had a picture of a flower coming up in the crack of a sidewalk. I have thought about that many times through the years when I have had questions about things that have come in my life. I have wondered, what am I doing here; is this really where I'm supposed to be; what am I supposed to do now? And then I think of that poster. Bloom Where You Are Planted.

Before Jesus was crucified, He gave His disciples a final talk. In John 15:16, He told them they had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them and appointed them to bear fruit. The Amplified Version of the Bible also says, "I have planted you" for "I have appointed you". As Christians, we believe nothing happens without God's approval. Even if it is bad (bad things do happen to Christians), it had to go through God before it came to us. Wherever we are or whatever our circumstances, we are to bear fruit. A plant has to bloom before it can bear fruit. Therefore, we are to bloom where we are planted.

The little marigold will bear seed so that future plants will grow. It is not intimidated by the gigantic plants growing all around it. It is doing exactly what it was created to do.  It is blooming where it was planted.

God gave me an object lesson that day. Bloom Where I Am Planted.