At one point I thought the bulb was a dud, and I almost planted another plant in the pot.

But I kept watering and watching and fertilizing and tending and waiting. The waiting part was hard. 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.”

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 the fruit;
• the problem doesn’t go away;
• the relationship is not healed;
• the answer has not come;

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 see results, God has already done a lot of work.

Perhaps this is why God had Paul offer us an encouragement. You can find it 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.

The context of these verses has us reaping in eternity, but we can harvest beautiful rewards in this life when we continue doing the right things, the best things, in our journey with God.

So today, look for those opportunities to do good – 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.

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

Photo – Dahlia, Beth Mims

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