A dud. That is what I thought as I watched the empty pot day after day,

I had planted a bulb, but nothing seemed to be happening.

When a stem finally appeared, that is all it was – a stem. The plant grew so tall that I had to put it in a bigger pot and stake it, and I kept thinking, “Where’s the bloom? I didn’t spend all of this time to get just a tall stalk.”

Stubbornly, though, I kept watering and watching and fertilizing and tending and waiting. The waiting part was hard.

Then after three months, this….

The results were worth the wait!

Some days it seems that we keep doing the right things and we keep trying, but

• we don’t see growth from our efforts;
• we don’t enjoy any fruit;
• the problem doesn’t go away;
• the relationship is not fixed;
• the answer has not come;
• the sickness is not healed;
• feel free to add your own bullet here.

It is almost cliche to say that our timeline is not God’s, but it is still truth. We don’t see everything that is happening; we don’t see all that God is doing.

Just like with the Dahlia, there is a lot of root growing before the stem ever appears, and that stem has to be pretty strong to hold up a bloom that size. By the time we begin to notice results, God has already done a lot of work.

Perhaps this is why God had Paul offer us this encouragement in Galatians 6.

Galatians 6: ⁹ And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

¹⁰ As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

In our culture of immediate gratification we don’t like to wait, but we can harvest beautiful rewards when we continue doing the right things, the best things, in our journey with God (sometimes stubbornness can be a good thing).

So today, plant some seeds – speak a kind word, hold a door, comfort the lonely, share a smile, visit a shut-in, help a child, fight for a just cause, read your Bible, say a prayer.

Those seeds will bear fruit one day, and the results will be worth the wait!

I Corinthians 3:⁶ I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

Photo – Dinner Plate Dahlia, Beth Mims

modified from earlier post