surrounded in blooms

we are mostly packed and our little flat is filled with flowers.

there are half a dozen vases of beautiful roses, lilies, hydrangeas and such scattered around the room and I’m completely overwhelmed.

When you bloom where you’re planted don’t be surprised to find yourself surrounded in flowers…

I’ve been thinking about a chapter of the Bible for the past week or so. we love to quote Jeremiah 29 because in verse eleven God speaks a truth over Israel’s life that we desperately want to believe is true over our life as well: “‘For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'”

But my thoughts have been earlier in the chapter… mulling over these words

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Am I allowed to just summarize these few verses for you?

I think God was actually commanding his people (then and now) to ‘bloom where you’re planted.’

Now I went to Moody long enough to actually be somewhat more afraid of using a verse wrongly then confidant that I can apply an Old Testament verse to my life appropriately… but I’ll choose to be brave because I believe God wants me to share how it is that I came to be completely overwhelmed by more than just flowers yesterday.

you see, God answers prayer.

for several years now I’ve asked God to teach me how to ‘bloom where I’m planted’ as I follow where He leads, and trust in His plan for me, even when it feels a bit zig-zaggy.

from high-school to New Zealand, then living back at home, then a year in Spokane before transferring to Chicago for 2 and half years before moving to Colorado, spending last summer in a mini-van between cities, and now being in New Zealand again for five months… I am now looking at spending the next month in Wisconsin before then moving to Austria for the remainder of the year.   as fun as it may seem, and forgive me if I sound ungrateful, I really struggled in the transitions between these places. I longed to put my roots down. I longed for a sense of  home. I felt like God kept moving me on and shaking me up, but there were quiet moments over the last 7 seven years when I wondered (hoped!) that God was growing me through it, preparing me for something and more than anything I just wanted to be able to feel settled in my heart even if my home was never a ‘settlement.’ I prayed, and yesterday I got to see God’s answer.

back to Jeremiah 29. No I’m not living in captivity… I don’t really feel like I’ve been taken from the promised land to a place where I will doubt whether God has good and prosperous plans for my future.

but I do think what God says to the Israelites whilst they are living ‘in between’ is very relevant for Christian’s lives today.

that the promise God makes to the Israelites if they will ‘bloom where they’re planted’ is also a promise to us today

is it possible that our being present in each moment and location God gives us is actually what living fully is all about?

is it possible that our own prosperity is wrapped up in seeking the prosperity of those around us? that when we bless others, God promises that we will be exponentially blessed?

that we receive God’s blessing in no other way than by blessing others?

I am convinced nothing is truer in this moment, and the fragrance in the air I am breathing confirms it.

I planted some flowers in the small dirt space in front of our flat about 2 months ago when we moved in. we knew we would only be here about two months, and yet I desperately wanted to plant my own flowers. you see I’ve never planted my own flowers before. I’ve planted heaps of other people’s flowers, but the truth is, I don’t really have a ‘sensible’ place to plant them… considering how little I would get to enjoy them with how often we move. but God was pressing on my heart to ‘bloom where I am planted’… and so I planted flowers.

when I did, God planted us. He lead us to seek the prosperity of this place that we have lived in for the past 5 months, and we have prospered immensely as a result. from this time last year, to where we are now… it is very humbling to see how God can transform your pain to bless the lives of others.

when God brought us here and I planted those little flowers I never expected to find myself surrounded in half a dozen vases that represent the appreciation of around 40 people who wanted us to know how God blessed them through us. most of these grateful people only met us 4 weeks ago. several people thanked us for caring enough to care for them, even though we’ve known all along how soon we’d have to say goodbye. I suppose the flowers I planted out front say their thanks as well each day when they open up and enjoy the sun.

we all sat in a circle out in front gardens and thanked God for the time chris and I had here at Capernwray. my dear friend Esther showered us with delicious food and brought the flowers from her mothers garden. she even made pink ice-cream people!

we were surprised and touched by how many of the students came, how many were encouraged by what God has done through our story, and the prayers they offered up to God on our behalf.

and in that moment as they were thanking us for being here in New Zealand, I thanked God for bringing us here, even though we were afraid to come… and that when we worry only about our own ‘prosperity’ others loose out with us.

it is bitter-sweet to leave this place… God has done so much in our hearts both this time and the last time we were here. when we see how mightily God can work when we make ourselves available to Him, we cannot imagine a more blessed existence than blooming right where He plants us.

may you also bloom where you are planted, even if, like us and the Israelites were, you are only planted where you are for a season. and as you bless others may you be exponentially blessed