My mother, as I have previously shared, was a gardener and a visionary extraordinaire of the beautiful nature and creation of God.  She knew just where and what to plant to express God’s beauty through landscaping and gardening. One of her well-known and still to this day-beautiful designs-was her trumpet vines.  They lined her fence on a well-traveled road and can still be enjoyed to this day, in spring, summer, and fall with all of the bright orange trumpet blossoms announcing it’s beauty and glory.  When my mom first planted those little plants and lined her fence, they were only a 24 inches tall.  She assured us that in time they would fill the fence and probably even grown in places she didn’t plan on them growing.  It took years for those little tiny plants to come into the beauty and fullness that they are today.

When my bestie built her family home, she was admiring the beauty of these full grown vines and told my mom how much she loved them.  My mom insisted that if she would go out and clip just one clipping of this vine and plant in her back yard, that in time, the fullness and beauty of this vine would spring forth and blossom and bloom and come into it’s own glory in her back yard.  My friend went home that very day and did just what my mom instructed.  She tucked that clipping along her back fence in fertile soil.  And she waited.  She waited and waited and waited.  She waited seven entire years to see that little snippet of trumpet vine come alive on her fence line.  She waited seven years to see a few orange blossoms announce the glory of God’s faithfulness in her garden.

Waiting…  Meh.  It’s not really a place that I just beg God to experience.  I mean when I go to my prayer closet, I can honestly say that I have never tagged the words, “and please let me wait for an undisclosed amount of time-the longer the better” after all of my heart-wrenching prayers.  Like never have I ever.  But here I am again,  finding myself in that place. Waiting.  I know that deep in my heart God has planted seeds, given me promises, and is walking me into His ways of holiness, freedom, and joy.  I do not doubt that He has planted seeds of purpose and destiny deep into my soul that I am just yearning and waiting and longing to see the green buds peak through the soil of my heart and explode into a thriving garden full of blooms.

Ever wondered what’s happening in the waiting?  I sure have.  In the actual place of waiting  it can sometimes feel like I’m trying to get comfy and cozy in cold soil in depths of darkness I can not understand.  It is not always a spiritually cozy place, and at first glance seems to counter what a spiritually thriving place should “feel” like.

When a gardener or farmer tucks a little seed into soil, that seed is in a dormant state.  And the sower has the hopes that the little seed will “come alive”.  A seed already comes with all the sugars and necessary proteins to develop into a plant, but what it lacks is oxygen and water to break apart it’s inner nutrients so that the seed can harness necessary energy to spring forth into a seedling and eventually a flourishing plant.  I find such beauty in God’s incredible design of creation and science as it often correlates with spiritual truths.  There are so many different kinds of seeds, and each and every one is uniquely in need of different temperatures, amounts of light and water.

Our perfect designer plants seeds of promise, seeds of prayers filled with desires for change or freedom, seeds of prayers for others, seeds of prayer for healing, seeds of hope for others deep into our hearts.  He has uniquely designed each seed with all the nutrients needed to “come alive”.  He has strategically tucked each seed in the right place and developed a longing for coming alive in the soil of our hearts.  Each seed is packed with all the protein of truth and sugars of His Word lying dormant and full of what God can and will do.

The waiting.  Often times the discomfort that comes in the waiting drives us to a place of seeking the necessary nutrients that our seeds lack to come alive.  Without water and oxygen and the energy of light, a seed can not spring forth.  When the cold, dark soil drives all of the seeds of truth, hope, prayers and promises to search for nutrient-rich oxygen, the breath of God-Ruach-His very spirit and presence, we can be positioned to grow hungry and thirsty for His Living Word and His Living Water.  And in the process we can find that it’s not the promises our soul needs and desires the most.  It’s harnessing the very love and light of the Gardener that fulfills and sustain us.  It’s in the dormancy and discomfort of waiting that we come to known Him.

This year I turned 40.  I have had some of the most incredible experiences in life, and some of the most painful experiences in my first 40 years.  On my 40th birthday, my bestie poured out love in an over-the-top and unbelievable way.  Every day for a week, she left a sweet gift on my doorstep.  She even typed little messages on cards to remain anonymous because she knew I would know her handwriting.  Each day I can not even begin to tell you how those gifts just expressed the love of Jesus to me.  I always miss my mama on my birthday, and this year was no different.  Before my mom died, she and bestie had a sweet conversation in which she promised to pray for and watch after me and my daughters. During the most difficult times in my life that immediately followed my mother’s death, she held my hand, caught my tears, wrote me notes, sent funny texts, made me dinners, helped me write a resume at 10 pm at night before an interview the next day-my list could go on and on.

 

She waited with me.  She prayed with me.  She sat in the uncomfortable with me.  She spoke life to me. She loved me in my ugly.  She celebrated with me.  She planned my wedding.  She went with me to try on my dress.  She put my mom’s pearls around my neck.  She sent me down the aisle to my long awaited treasure and love of my life-My Nathan.

On my 40th birthday morning she met me at Starbucks and we shared one of the many cups of coffee we’ve shared together, and I received a beautiful bracelet from her, and then she led me outside and gave me a gift from Our Gardener.  After 7 long awaited years, that tiny snippet had taken root in her backyard and blossomed with a few bright orange trumpet blossoms.  It wasn’t just any summer that He so carefully chose bring to fruition the trumpet vine from my mother’s garden into her back yard.  It was in the time of His favor and so beautifully timed to be the summer that God brought to fruition years of tears and waiting, a promise he had given me.  With his trumpet-He announced His faithfulness, love and delight.

Are you waiting?  Are you uncomfortable?  Cold?  Hurting?  Longing?  Hoping?  You are right where He wants you to be.  Seek His Oxygen-Rich Spirit through reading His Word, Praying His Promises, Believing His Truths.  Harness the power of the Holy Spirit.  He wants you all to Himself.  That’s what is in the waiting.  Beauty and treasures and delight.

 

Jesus,  you are more than I have ever asked hoped or imagined.  You are all I need.  Continue to draw me to the place where I seek you alone.  Thank you that you hear all my prayers, know my desires and have been so faithful to answer in Your time and in Your way.  Bring to fruition all the seeds of promise and hope and freedom you have tucked into the soil of my heart.  I trust Your timing and I trust Your ways. 

 

This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances.  Isaiah 49:8

I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they will say, ‘You are my God!'”
Hosea 2:23

Need a declaration song of your seeds of promise, hopes, and prayers?  Sing it loud and declare His faithfulness!  Take Courage

*God called and appointed and divinely placed the most beautiful besties and sisters who walked me through my journey with grace and peace and love.  Their stories will follow…