These lenten rose perennials are my harbingers of spring. Every year, I look forward to their sunny faces breaking through the dirt. This year, I wondered if they would be hurt by our many spring snowstorms, including the unexpected April snow this week. But here they are, pushing through adverse conditions, not letting the cold reception dampen their spirits, and teaching me in the process.
In every storm, there’s something to be learned, an attribute to be developed, an insight to be gleaned. God never wastes a hurt, a problem, a sorrow when yielded to Him.
Seeing these buds peek through the snow encourages me to push through my own struggles. When it seems a blanket of adversity is about to swallow me, I see these beauties – seemingly fragile flowers –standing tall and tough.
These plants have roots buried beneath the soil that sustains them. We can’t see them, but they provide the power to survive the adversity.
God is calling us to develop strong roots:
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph. 3:17-19
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Col 2:6-7
Did you catch all that?
- Rooted and established in love
- Have power!
- Grasp the extent of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
- Be filled to the measure of ALL the fullness of God
- Continue to live your lives in Him
- Strengthened in faith
- Overflowing with thankfulness
These roots will nourish our souls and provide strength to sustain us during the cold hard winters of our lives that we may bloom in victory standing tall.
