Susan O’Donnell
89.5 KVNE Afternoons

I am a farm girl, so I can’t help it that spring is definitely my favorite season.  There are so many lessons to be learned in nature as spring resurrects the plants and buds and flowers and gives new birth to animals.

I love this time of year, except for the pine pollen that is already turning my car yellow-green and making breathing a huge effort.

It’s been in the news that people in East Texas are concerned because the azalea bushes are starting to bloom early…too early to be at the peak when it’s Azalea Trail time in Tyler.

It made me think about how an azalea bush sort of mirrors the Church — not A church, but THE Church.

Have you noticed the bush is planted in the same soil? It’s one bush that is rooted in the same dirt with the same nutrients?

However, the budding azalea flowers don’t all pop out at once. One flowers early. A group of more buds may begin to bloom soon after that. Then throughout the season, other flowers appear and blossom in what appears to be their own time.

The Church is to be rooted in Christ, given the same Word, given the same love and message of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit.

But the hearts don’t all burst into bloom at the same time. Some take a while to flower while others quickly blossom. Still, others bloom into a pattern that changes the very look of the whole Church.

If there are blossoms on an azalea plant that have not yet flowered, no gardener is sent to pull them out of the bush and throw them in the compost pile. No one stands and reprimands the bud for acting like a blossom that has not yet reached its flower. The gardener instead feeds the whole plant again with intent to bring more nurture to those blooms not yet complete.

As the Church, we see not everyone comes to Jesus at the same time or even in the same season of life. It is not for us to discard or find they’ve not gotten the message and deem them unproductive. Instead, it is for us to help feed the whole of the Church and care for the young buds and blooms.

It is also for us to be excited and joyous when the blossoms finally do break through! Granted, our timeline is what we think is right, but the actual blossoming and flowering is in the hands of the One who created them. He is the timekeeper, Creator and Gardener.

How do you see God is working in your life? We’d love to know about you, so please feel free to leave a comment below!

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