The empty hook on my wall was beginning to irritate me. So I went to the dollar store (I love the dollar store!) and looked through the pictures. After several minutes, I came upon one that said, “Bloom Where You are Planted.” It was a pretty green and pink on a cream background and would look good on the vacant hook. So I bought it.
Later, I was looking at that picture when I realized that, although the pretty pink flower appears to be a water lily, in the background were, unmistakably, cacti!
Water lilies and cactus. How did they get on the same picture? I began to consider the word “planted.”
“Planted” indicates an outside agency, a Gardener. Planted things are placed where the Gardener wants them. But the Gardener knows the conditions required for the plant’s well-being. He would never ask a water lily to bloom in the desert, or a cactus to flourish in a pond. So “planted” suggests a plan.
Hmmm. Maybe that means that in the Gardener’s plan, I am placed right where I should be, whether I think I am or not. Perhaps it means that I can bloom where I am, whether I think I can or not.
Flowers bloom because that is what they were created to do. Blooming leads to fruit, which leads to seeds, which leads to new life.
But seasons end, blooms fade, plants die. The same for people:
Grass withers and flowers fade
when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them.
People are no more enduring than grass.
Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:7-8 Good News Translation
Ah! But remember: there is a plan:
For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal. As the scripture says,
“All human beings are like grass,
and all their glory is like wild flowers.
The grass withers, and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
This word is the Good News that was proclaimed to you.
1 Peter 1:23-25 Good News Translation
Born into immortality, blooming into Christ. Good news, indeed!
So, “Bloom Where You Are Planted.” Because you can.
Who would have thought a dollar store find would yield such hope?