Every year in December I plant tulips. I know - crazy! Long after our gardens are “put to rest” and in the throes of the holidays, Carla is out in her yard burying tulip bulbs in the dark, cold ground and hoping for a beautiful harvest in the Spring.
If you are familiar with tulip bulbs you know what hopeless looks like. They are ugly, dried up and the "uneducated in all things tulip” would trash them.
Romans 3:10 tells us “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Our lives can be ugly and we may feel “dried up,” but the Master Gardener sees beauty in the ugly “bulb” we bring to Him.
Did you know there is a RIGHT way to plant the bulb? You want the nose, or growing point, to point up and the roots to point down. How about that for a spiritual application?
Psalms 5:3 “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
We keep looking UP. We plant ourselves with our faces lifted to Him!
Also, it says in Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Our roots must be planted in good soil. If you take a gardening class you may be surprised that the first class is usually about soil. The success of the garden is determined by the soil.
Jesus told the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 – what was the making/breaking of the success of the seed? THE GROUND IT FELL ON.
Our “soil” must be good. We must receive the Seed (the Word of God) – hearing, studying, and growing in the Word.
Most tulip instructions say to “bury the bulb 3 times deeper than itself.” Anyone ever feel you just cannot go any further down? It just can’t get any darker? Many times in the Bible the question is asked “How long O Lord?”
I have three things to say about waiting:
1. Waiting gives us a chance to LOOK BACK AT WHAT GOD HAS DONE.
Psalms 42:5-6 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.”
While I wait I remember and testify of all the great things God has done in my life.
2. Waiting may be GOD'S INVITATION to Psalm 46:10 “cease striving and know that I am God” Yes, the season of waiting is difficult. We rest in Him. So whether we are waiting for guidance on a major decision, or waiting for a broken heart to heal, or waiting for love, or waiting for a clear career path to unfold, or a lost loved one to come home, or whatever, we know that Jesus longs to walk with us right here, right now.
3. Waiting cultivates HOPE
Psalms 39:7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in you.
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Sometimes our hopes are buried deep and the waiting is dark, but if we bury our hope in Him, something beautiful will be resurrected. It is a Bible principle – death, burial and resurrection. In salvation and in our daily lives we experience death, burial and resurrection.
Many days in the “winters of life” I have looked out at my garden and wondered about my tulips. Are you alive? Are you going to make it? Will I really see beauty?
Something wonderful begins to happen to the planted bulb – the sun begins to stay out for longer periods – the bulb yields to that heat and light – and Yes! The shoots begin to push upward.
And something wonderful happens to Hope planted in the soil of His Word – the S-O-N begins to do His work – warmth, light and Yes! Hope shoots up.
Job 14:7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
My tulips are in full bloom and your hope, my friends, will bloom too! Winter doesn’t last for always - Resurrection Day is coming!
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