Sweet Williams!

A year ago I bought a packet of Sweet William seeds.

I sowed them in trays, watered them, nurtured them and watched them grow through a long hot summer.

They thrived in the gentle autumn rains and when the cold of winter came they rested and didn’t grow again until the warmth of spring.

Through the winter there were times when they were covered in frost until the sun shone warm upon the leaves and the frost melted away.

When the wind blew strong they would bend over but when it was past they would straighten their stems and once more reach up to the light.

Through these last few weeks they’ve put a real spurt on and now they’re about 18″ tall and the flowers will soon be open.

It’s the longest I’ve waited for seeds I’ve planted to flower but I figured that it was worth the wait for one of my favourite flowers.

Soon it’ll flower and within a few weeks die. It will have weathered the storms, the heat and the cold and flowered to the glory of God, but then its work will be done.

Our lives are like that Friends. We go through different seasons, some are sowing seasons, seasons where we pour into others.

Some are growing seasons, times where we put out new shoots and thrive.

There are times when the storms of life rage and we feel battered and tossed in all directions.

Some season are dry and we have to put our roots down deep to find water or we would soon wilt and die.

Other seasons are times of waiting and resting and others are times of flowering, blooming to the glory of our Creator God.

Friends, just think, through all the changing scenes in our lives, our God remains faithful and unchanging.

‘As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;

To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.’

Through all the changing seasons this year with my seeds, there is one thing that really stood out, one thing remained the same, they always lean towards the light!!

Is that us?

Do we daily grow towards the light of the Sun of Righteousness?

Do we allow the warmth of His love to melt our cold hearts?

Do we put our roots deep into the soil of The Word to draw nourishment so that we too might flourish for His glory?

‘Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.’

And then, for the true child of God, the time of harvest will come but instead of death there will be eternal life, a life spent with Jesus, where there is…

‘no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.’

‘As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.’

Friend, are you planted? Are you rooted in Christ?

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Psalm 103:15-18, 92:13, Rev 21:we