Uncommon Bloom

"As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round."

Ben Hogan

 

I really think this quote is cute. I’m not a golfer (yet), but I’ve been a few times and I kind of think it’s a hobby I could learn and be challenged and enjoy. But for now it’s a someday thing because I’m in the thick of paying for kids schooling and sports and some other things I’m working on...

My Dad is a golfer. Has been for years. Who do you think took me golfing? He made my youngest son a putter custom sized and fitted a few years ago. It may have been one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

I am a Gardener🦋... 

I garden the flowerbeds and God has called me to be a Gardener of the Heart...souls are like flowers in His flowerbed with some butterflies sprinkled in.

I weed. I prune, for new life to come. I clip and trim, for beauty and shape. I turn the soil for the air to penetrate down deep and the sunlight to nourish. But mostly...

I water and I encourage.

Because I garden, when God wants to captivate my attention and my heart he frequently turns my eye to the garden. One evening I recall  coming in the house I noticed that on a particular rose bush I had three new buds blossoming even though it was January.

See, my God is a hopeless romantic (not just for me, but for all his kids). I cast my eye upon those roses and I knew, He is besotted for my heart. God knows I’m more in love with a flower growing from the ground than spending  money on an expensive boutique. But bouquets are lovely, too. He knew I’d enjoy an uncommon bloom in a season where roses are dormant. He highlighted and sensationalized the whole experience—because He is a God of Encounters. We are meant to experience Him, not just read about Him, talk about Him, pray to Him (all good, but not all—there’s more! And it’s found within the Holy Spirit).

He is faithful and he keeps his promises.

He loves you. He may be plucking and pruning and preparing you, exposing the nerve of each weed that needs to go, His heart doesn’t waiver.  Our trials are producing and fertilizing and gathering something of extraordinary merit. When God looks at you He sees YOU. The you down deep that has no one to please or keep happy or comply with. The you that has no deadlines, quotas or imposed upon agendas. The you you crave to be--heart and soul, because it is who God has hardwired you to be. He is besotted with you. He will turn over a new leaf for you. He will launch you into Divine Destiny. When God looks at you, He sees an uncommonly gorgeous Bloom. Nobody, but nobody, is like you.🌸

~Nicole