Today is September 25. It is officially autumn, and I have a lilac bush in bloom. In a row of brown, lifeless bushes, one stands out with lavender blossoms and green leaves.
I am not a master gardener or anything close to it, but I know that lilacs bloom for a very short time in May (at least in Iowa, maybe it differs in other climates?). As I mowed the lawn yesterday, I was amazed at this lilac bush daring to bloom when everything around it has been dormant for months.
I contemplated this fall-blooming lilac bush for a while during and after my lawn mowing, and I was reminded of God’s ability to bring life where there was none. We see examples of physical resurrection in the Bible in I Kings 17, Luke 8, John 11, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The examples are endless of spiritual resurrection, of a spirit and soul that was dead being resurrected and infused with new life.
The challenges of this year have brought many of us to our knees. The world around us seems to spin in chaos and madness. For some of us, the madness has presented itself inside our homes as well. Things have occurred inside our four walls that no one else knows, but the Heavenly Father sees. I know He is making a way for you where there seems to be absolutely no way. That blooming lilac bush? I never would have imagined it would spring back to life in September. And God has a funny way of working things for our good in a time and a way that are beyond our understanding and not at all what we expected.
Let me encourage you today to keep believing, keep trusting in Him to come through for you. He is faithful, and He has never let us enter into a situation where He didn’t have the resources to get us out of that situation. If you don’t trust in Him, I would love to talk to you about the many ways He has been faithful to me.
I read Romans chapter 8 in my Bible a LOT. This is one of the many verses that has helped me through countless dark nights:
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:31-32, 38-39 ESV
Angela Gidley 