Digging In The Dirt - Bloom Where You’re Planted

Digging in the Dirt - Bloom Where You’re Planted

NOW THAT STEVE and I live in the city, the closest I get to a veggie garden is the farmer’s market in downtown Dallas. But every spring I still get the fever to dig in the dirt.

In our first house in Dallas, our lot was small and the vegetation was very mature. Actually, it was a little too mature in a few spots, so we decided to do a bit of updating to the beds. This, of course, required Steve to dig up four-foot plants and prepare them to be transplanted into our daughter’s yard.

The work was going well. Steve was digging, and I was “coaching” (you can imagine how much he loves it when I do that). We safely bagged and transported the plants to the kids’ house—except for one. When Steve dug up a camellia bush, he laid it behind a divider wall in our yard and forgot about it. From the house, you couldn’t see the abandoned plant.

The next weekend, we discovered our camellia, lying on the ground, roots bare to the world, and blooming up a storm. Never mind that the camellia blooms in February; this one was putting on a brand-new red, roselike show for us in May—lying on its side.

What a lesson. If we could all just learn to bloom where we’re planted . . . to produce our best work, to be our loveliest, and to thrive, regardless of the conditions or circumstances we have been given.

Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

At times we are all less than enchanted, either by our work itself or by the companies we serve. If we, like that camellia bush, just remember that our work and our talents are both from God and for God . . . oh, yes, we would humbly give it our all and bloom where we’re planted.