It's Not Easy Being Green

When I drive my eyes occasionally drift over to what's growing on the side of the road.  Our area of Ontario experienced some really hot dry weather this summer and I was amazed at how many green things were still growing along the roadside in the middle of August.  I thought there should be dead yellow and brown grass. Instead I saw a lot of green:  bull-rushes, goldenrod, loose-strife, asters...  The lush green grass of Spring may be gone but that`s only because it has finished its cycle.    My bleeding heart plant gives it up around the beginning of August if I`ve watered it faithfully.  And then I just saw it off at the ground.  Same with the poppy, spider-wort, etc...  These plants are Spring`s first signs of  life but they are short lived.     Then there are plants that need a longer season to grow.   Like corn they need the heat units of summer and don`t show their spectacular blooms until the fall and carry on with reckless abandon until the frost finishes them.  

Often when we imagine growth in ourselves and in the world around us, we expect lushness and greenness, that "other side of the fence" kind of greenness. We expect that growth will follow a pattern.  Sometimes we need to stretch and challenge ourselves, and God gives strength and courage for us to follow His Leading.   But often we experience growth after spending time in the wilderness.

Rarely do we get to choose how we will grow or in which season we will do our growing.  In my experience, God has more to say about that than I do.    Yet when we allow God to do His Work in us, we will grow, we will bloom and we will produce the seed that He needs us to share with the world.