under the mess

It was early spring; winter was finally past with nicer weather here to stay.  Not wanting to be inside any longer, I was anxious to get "out there" and start clearing up the gardens around our house.  One sloping bank in particular was a mess of weeds and downed limbs, as well as being home to mounds of leaves from the previous fall.  My husband had planted tall spikes of forsythia along the upper edge of the bank, and I was eager to free the budding branches so eventually they could bloom in all their glory.

I attacked the overgrowth with gusto.  I pulled, tugged, threw to the side, cleared and pruned to my heart's content.  Happy with my progress, I was almost to the end of my crusade when a spot of color caught my eye. All movement stopped for a moment. I wasn't sure what I was seeing because it was nestled so deep in the underbrush.  Only after I had a chance to move the surrounding debris was I able to see the source of the color - the first forsythia bloom of the season.

 

I stood there in awe. This perfect beauty, produced from the branch that had been buried beneath the muck and the mire.  Flower bursting forth from the limb that had been denied all but a little light.  Apparently, the one with the most junk dumped on it blooms first.

 

Sounds like something out of Life 101.

 

We all have weights bearing down on us in our lives; no one escapes that fact.  Some come for a season or a time and then leave; others make their nests in our days and roost.  This overgrowth, this debris, these heartaches and pressures and unwanted circumstances that threaten to bury us and squeeze out the light in our lives - they don't come to weigh our heart down for no reason.  God allows them into our lives to help us to grow, to flourish, to bloom.  We usually don't recognize them as beneficial fertilizer (because we're too busy trying to make them go away), but God knows they are exactly what our soul needs in order to produce the sweet blossoms that represent Him changing a life.

 

Life exists under the mess. It's there for a reason. It's the mess that provides the nutrients for our growth. 

 

So keep calm and bloom on.