Proverbs 23:18
“There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off.” (NIV)
I dropped off my son at school and began to walk towards the train station. My eyes were attracted to the dirt around the trees that line the streets there. I saw, as I went from tree to tree, that tulip buds/leaves had begun to say, "Hello." I observed that some of them had withered edges and some of those edges had turned brown. My heart was saddened because there's nothing that can be done to protect them.
Snow is in the air. March is almost over and it seems Jack Frost is extending his vacation here in the city. Those budding leaves may seem to be hearing someone say to them, "The reason you're withering away is because it's not your time to come out yet." I imagine the voices they have to put up down there in the ground. "Didn't you know that it's too early? It's not time for you to bloom, or go forward."
Proverbs 16:3
“Commit your works to the LORD
And your plans will be established.” (NASB)
Seasons don't wait for anyone's leading but the Lord's guidance. Trees bloom and flowers begin to sprout, pushing forward because their time has come to reach out and bloom. But then the cold weather returns or lingers. The snow storms that should have stopped, return. Just as these tulips were launching out to awaited "Oohs, and Aahhs" from passersby, the chill sweeps by and stops them from accomplishing what they've been created to do.
Ever feel that way? Ever sense it's your time to push out into the world and accomplish what you have in your heart? Even feel like your strength is returning, your health is being restored, your career is finally taking off, and then suddenly boom, the cold wind of winter refusing to leave pushes you a hundred steps backwards and tells you to stop moving forward. Because....it's going to snow, that's why.
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (KJV)
You're not withering, turning brown or going to die in the cold ground. There's a plan brewing in you ready to be released. There's an agenda that pushes far beyond a new season. God has ordained it and it is so. It has to happen and it has nothing to do with it not being time because you've been made ready, prepared and given directions to extend, push through the ground, even as the storm approaches, even as the winds blow upon you, and even as it seems the seasons in your life are confused, like snowstorms as April approaches instead of flourishing gardens.
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| Sketch by Aaron Duran |
As a child, I remember kids crumpling tiny pieces of paper into balls, then placing them on a rubber band, stretching it back and letting go. Whoever got smacked with the spit ball would look back, angrily and hoping to find who did it. Instead of seeing yourself going back into the ground, or as if your world is pushing you back, see yourself today as someone who God has placed on that rubber band, ( no, you're not a spitball but for illustration, go along with me) and in the midst of the changes around you, the storms, the problems, the issues that come to stop you from going forward, God himself holds you in that place, pulls you back and then lets you go. You have been placed on God's catapulting machine, launching you out to go beyond what you imagined. It is your time.
It is your time to soar, fly, and end up ahead of the game. Soon, the snow will come but it will also disappear. And guess what, many of those tulips will have survived the cold and in a few weeks, I will walk by and see the beautiful, colorful tulips waving at me, smiling, as I drop my son off at school. They were the strong ones. They survived. They held on while the storm passed and waited to be pushed into this world to proclaim their victory. You will be like that, too. It is your time. Don't be afraid. Your time is now.
Ezekiel 1:12
And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they went.
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