Blooming Anywhere

 Last year at this time, the yard was torn up. A new septic tank had to go in, causing our front area to be turned into a rocky pile of dirt. Soil that had long been undisturbed now lay strewn across the driveway. It was disruption in full. The unforgiving claw of the backhoe scraped across it and lay waste to its peaceful existence. The soft earth was ripped wide open.

 A year later, I find a strange phenomenon has developed: little Violas and Johnny-jump-ups have appeared everywhere, causing me to wonder how these little flowers got there. We have often spotted them here before, but never this many. Never out so far...

   

 I think of the old phrase, "Bloom where you're planted," and I gaze at these signs of new life. The soil is rocky - not known for growing things well. The yard is still muddy and uneven after being torn apart last Fall. But these tiny flowers speak of what life is all about: learning to adapt and be joyful...right where you are. The environment may not be the greatest place, but that doesn't mean that you must stop living. It doesn't mean that Grace is absent. That He cannot resurrect and make whole. There have been many times when my heart has been ripped in two. Times when the pain drove deep, and I asked, "Can one live again after such hurt?" But the joy-flowers, the blooms of Grace, have returned to me, renewing with them the promise that God will complete. God will make well. He will heal the gaps that are slit right open and will restore to the broken a song of life. Because of this, I can thrive. I can bloom and bring joy...no matter where I'm planted.