Seven years ago, the land our home is built on was a flat, rocky field of weeds. I wanted a backyard with a big tree that spread out in the center of the yard, so we planted a fast-growing tree that flowers. Then a freeze came, and it got colder than it’s ever been here. I was sure the tree wasn’t strong enough to withstand the freeze.
My fear seemed justified when we were in the middle of spring, and all the trees around us were turning green and budding flowers, and our tree was small and bare. Weeks passed and we were wondering if we should cut our losses and remove the tree. We decided to give it a while longer. One day, at the very end of spring, we saw leaves and then lovely pink flowers on our little tree.
The next year we had another freeze. Again, I thought the tree was a goner. It had no blooms when all the other trees were bursting with color. But, at the end of spring, it bloomed! Every year, eventually, it gets leaves, then flowers, and it’s so pretty!
This tree speaks to my soul. In its slowness, it reminds me that it doesn’t operate on my timetable. Its steadiness tells me that it will bloom every year. Not because of anything I did or didn’t do, but because it is a flowering tree.
There are things in my life I am waiting for. Stuff with my kids, my marriage, my work. My branches look bare, though I see others’ trees full and green and blooming. What do I need to do? Weirdly, much of the time the answer is nothing. I don’t need to do anything but wait and trust that, just like I cannot rush my tree, I cannot rush life. I can learn to be at peace in this season, because the flowers are promised.
“Blessed is the one […] whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:1–3 NIV).
As I write this, we have one cluster of flowers on our tree. Every other tree has been blooming for months! I have no idea why our tree is on a different schedule, except maybe to illustrate this lesson—stay steady where God has planted you, allowing the soil and sun and rain He sends into your life to do its work, and the flowers will come.