Bloom Where You Are Planted

I remember the first week of living in our new house in Texas.  We moved our family from Michigan, having had our fill of long winters, and we were excited to begin a new chapter in our lives.  It did not take long, however, for homesickness to set in.  On one morning in particular, tears formed in my eyes before I even opened them for the day.  But the four children who needed to get to school kept me going.  During those first months, even the first couple years, I often wondered, “Lord, why Texas?”  It was not a foreign country, but it comes pretty close!

As I reflect on those days, I can almost hear one of my dearly loved, honorary aunts gently saying to me, “Bloom where you are planted.”  This simple phrase is an encouragement to do the best you can do no matter what.  Whatever each day brings, wherever you find yourself, try to be nice and do not give up. 

It was a popular phrase way back when I was a young teen.  It was splashed across posters, t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags.  I think there was even a book with this title.  I heard it over and over.  It was a nice sentiment, but it never impacted me in any way.  I do not remember the events in my life that I had been sharing with my aunt that prompted her to say it, but that day her gentle delivery was heavy with the weight and meaning behind her words that landed right in my soul.  I left that conversation with a new attitude and fortitude.  And now, these many years later, I have a much deeper understanding of what it takes to produce a bloom and the impact a beautiful bloom can have.  “Bloom where you are planted” is the perfect encouragement for today, the first day of the new year 2025.

The blooms of a plant are the reward of gardening, and often hard to produce.  They are the beauty that is the goal on planting day, and the reason for the back breaking work of digging, watering, weeding, and cultivating.  They are the payoff.  They have, however, a purpose that goes beyond visual beauty.  For plants that are grown for their blooms, the bloom is where the seeds are that produce more plants and thus more blooms.  For plants that are grown for their fruit, the blooms are a precursor to not only the food we need for sustenance, but also the fruit that contains seeds for more plants and thus more food.  The bloom is a beautiful thing, but the purpose of the plant does not end with the bloom.  The purpose of the bloom is seeds and fruit.

Some plants can grow in the direst of situations, and many benefit greatly from the stress of wind and storms.  The strongest palm trees in fact are those that weather hurricanes, bending with the force of the wind.  Like waking up in Texas when I was longing for “home,” we sometimes find ourselves planted in garden plots that are less than our ideal.  Sometimes it may feel like we were planted by mistake, or planted in a place where it is impossible to grow.  Wherever God has us planted right now, however, we can trust Him that beautiful blooms are possible.  By allowing Him to prune and cultivate us, allowing His Word to water us, allowing the fresh air and wind of the Holy Spirit to bring life to us, and basking in the true light of Jesus, we have all we need to grow no matter how dire the circumstances.

Each one of us did the work God gave us to do.  I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it. But God is the One who made it grow.

I Cor. 3: 5b-6 (NCV)

I hope you will join me in a new season of blooming for this new year.  I pray for each one of you that beautiful things will blossom in your life, that fruit and seeds will develop and begin to grow a beautiful and bountiful harvest of spiritual blessings.  And I pray that others will see, appreciate, and benefit from the new things God is growing and bringing into full bloom in your life.  This is your year to bloom!

Then will all your people be righteous and they will possess the land forever.  They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.

Is. 60:21 (NIV)