Bloom Where You Are Planted

I’m not sure how it became my motto.  I saw it first on a t-shirt.  Then it started appearing everywhere I turned.  Bloom where you are planted.  At first, I just thought it was a cute saying.  But the more I’ve been thinking about it, it is great advice.

Last summer, we had random sunflowers just popping up all over our yard.  I would be amazed at all the strange places the sprouts would pop up from.  I blamed the scattered flowers on the birds.  I laughed to myself each time I discovered one.

Then one day I spotted one delicate, little sprout leaning towards the sunshine from a crazy corner of my girls’ swing set.  It was a partly shaded spot.  The sprout was protected from kid feet by a neglected corner spot behind the climbing ladder.  I watched this sprout each day, tracking its progress.  Thinking, there was no way that sunflower could bloom where it was haphazardly planted.  I was waiting for it to turn yellow, wither and die.

But that sprout grew.  It grew tall and it grew straight.  The sunflower head widened.  It managed to poke though the side and out of the corner through the swing set ladder.  Always reaching, yearning for precious sunrays. 

I marveled at that sunflower.  Out of all the beautiful flowers we had purposely planted in the flower beds last summer, this “stray” sunflower was my favorite in the whole yard.  I was rooting it on!  Cheering it on in my head as I surveyed its progress each day.  When the day arrived that it fully bloomed, it took my breath away.  This sunflower was stunning.  The golden hued petals astounded me.

And that is when it hit me.  That flower bloomed where it was planted.  It didn’t choose the unlikely corner of a child’s play area.  It didn’t select my yard above all others because it had the best soil or choicest plot of land.  And it certainly did wait for the best time.  Nope.  The seed had no say, no choice in the matter.  It simply was planted and it did what it was intended to do.  It sprouted and grew.  It blossomed and bloomed! 

Ladies, I don’t know about you, but I want to bloom where God has planted me! I long to be deeply rooted in His love.  I desire my life to be a beautiful testimony of our awesome Creator.  I want to do what God has intended for me to do: to love Him and love others.  I’m not going to allow lies and doubt and fear to try to get me to wither and die off. I am excited to grow and blossom!

“Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women.” Song of Solomon 2:2 (NIV)

Don’t believe the lie that we have to wait for the “perfect” time or place.  We don’t have to put it off, waiting for this season of life to end and another to begin.  And perhaps blooming right now is the farthest from your mind.  You are just trying to survive each day.  But you know what, like that sunflower, you are exactly where God wants you to be. He has planted you where you are for such a time as this.  Sweet friends, let’s surrender whole heartedly to God, right now, right here.  Wherever you are, allow Him to grow you.  Then you will bloom where you are planted!

Oh what a beautiful garden that will be one day – when we are all blooming for the King!

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens… He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,11 (NIV)

Our sunflower, Aug. 2015, blooming in the unlikeliest of spots

Post by: Marcy Gates