I love having a vase full of fresh flowers in my home. However, any flower I have in my house has most likely come from a store or a florist. I do not know much about gardening or growing various types of flowers. I can’t say whether or not I have a green thumb because I have never truly tried to grow anything on my own. In spite of this, gardening, flowers, plants, and the like have been important to my family.
My papaw was a gardener. Some of my favorite memories with him are the times spent in his garden bringing in the harvest. The summer before he went to be with Jesus, the entire family pulled together to bring in his crops. Remembering crawling between his rows of beans stalks picking countless green beans, laughing with family over cucumbers and watermelons, and seeing the abundance received over his lifetime are special memories to me.
With fall just beginning, it would be fitting to write about seasons of harvest, in which everything goes smoothly, the Lord answers all of our prayers, and He provides more than we need because the Lord is faithful to do this. He has been faithful to me, providing for me and blessing me beyond what I could have asked for. However, a season of harvest is not how I would define where I am right now. Has the Lord been good to me? Yes, and He always will be. Has everything gone according to my plan? Have things always been easy? No and no.
This month, in the midst of much harvest, I would like to share a few thoughts on seasons of transplanting. There are times when a gardener sees fit to move a plant from one place to another for the betterment of the plant’s growth and future. Our God, the original gardener, also knows that there are times when His children need to be replanted. This change could be for many reasons known to us such as a fresh start, finding life-giving relationships, a job move, financial blessing, new opportunities, reconciliation, healing, and growth. It could also be for a purpose that will never be realized this side of heaven. However, when God asks us to reestablish our roots, it will not be an easy process, but the choice to obey will yield a harvest of His faithfulness and glory.
In Genesis 12, we find the story of God calling Abram, a beautiful example of obedience in a season of transplanting.
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ”
God instructed Abram to leave his family, his home, and all he had known up to that point in his life and follow Him to a place known to God alone. This is a huge call in which Abram could have come up with many excuses and reasons for why he should not say yes to God, yet Abram chose obedience. He chose to set out and follow his God.
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
You see, in spite of all that he left behind, Abram took the presence and promise of God with him. With Abram’s call to move came a promise that was fulfilled with the establishment of the children of God. A group of people set apart to know and dwell with the Lord. A group of people that brought the world the Messiah, the Savior. A group of people that all could be grafted into one day. Through the impact of this promise, those who call on the name of the Lord become His precious child, including you and I.
When God calls you to a season of change, know His promises go with you in your obedience. Our Father is faithful to fulfill each promise, pour out His blessing, and receive His glory.
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.”