29 June 2005 Devotion for Today “Late Bloomers” Ezekiel 19:10-14
As I write this morning there is a beautiful refreshing rain falling on Weeksville, North Carolina. We have not had rain like this in weeks. It’s the kind of rain that makes you want to lie in bed in the morning and snooze beneath the sound of the heavy drops tapping lightly on the rooftop. There is not a better night’s sleep to be had like that. The flowers and garden need it badly- especially the hydrangea bush that I planted late this spring in memory of my father. It was looking quite wilted even though I tried to water it every evening. For weeks we wondered if the poor little plant would make it. But today it is thriving- its green leaves are reaching up to heaven as if to say, “Thank you, God!” There is even a small, pink blossom which I have not seen before. It gives me hope that the other foliage and garden plants will follow suit.
As I delight in the flowers this morning I am reminded of our text in Ezekiel 19: “Your mother was like a vine in your bloodline, planted by the waters, fruitful and full of branches because of many waters. She had strong branches for scepters of rulers. She towered in stature above the thick branches, and was seen in her height amid the dense foliage.” Ezekiel 19:10-11
As Ezekiel relays this imagery, he is reminded of how fruitful Israel once was when she was responsive to God’s Word and His ways. She prospered and thrived under the godly leadership of David and Solomon. However, with a few exceptions, the generations which followed produced ungodly political and spiritual leadership, causing a spiritual drought that deeply affected Israel’s once glorious reign. Her bloom has turned into blight, causing the prophet to continue by saying, “But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried her fruit. Her strong branches were broken and withered : the fire consumed them and now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. Fire has come out from a rod of her branches and devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong branch- a scepter for ruling.” Ezekiel 19:12-14.
I used to marvel how people’s lives are very much like the plants that we tend. Some thrive and take off quite naturally with no apparent trouble, while others are what you call, “late bloomers.” Yet the early thriving plants have no guarantees that they will continue as they are now, and the ones we almost give up hope for, like the hydrangea, turn out to surprise us later when the right conditions appear. So it is in God’s economy. It shows us that we ought never to rest upon our laurels and glory in spiritual victories of the past, and never give up hope in apparent hopelessness.
Have a blessed day!
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