Gardening and the resulting plants and flowers are wonderful spiritual and personal growth and development tools. The process often correlates with other areas in our lives. I’ll share my latest anecdote and why I believe that you’ll know God’s promises when you see them.
Several months ago, I was searching for the perfect replacement for my dead, mandevilla plant. In fact, the picture seen on the right is what the plant looked like in its glory days. Unfortunately, after a few, bad planting decisions, my mandevilla said its final goodbye. I tried to replace the original plant with other mandevillas, but I became discouraged after the death of the two replacement plants. For that reason, I decided to move on to another floriferous species.
Finding the perfect flower-bearing plant would prove difficult for that location. There, the scorching sun blazes for most of the day, and there is little to no shade. Fortunately, after some research, I learned about the bougainvillea. These ornamental vining plants are colorful, flowering shrubs that blooms year-round.
A Note about Bougainvillea Flowers
The vivid colored structures on the bougainvillea branches are not flowers. They are called bracts, which are modified or specialized leaves. The bougainvillea bracts present in a variety of shades: red, pink, purple, orange, yellow and white. The actual flowers of the bougainvillea are small, white and yellow blooms inside the bracts. Nonetheless, both the bracts and the flowers are beautiful characteristics of the Bougainvillea plant.
My Search for a Bougainvillea Plants
While the bracts do present in various shades, some hues are more ubiquitous than others. In my area, the solid red and purple varieties seemed more popular. Conversely, the hybrid pink and white shades, the ones I sought, were hard to find. For months, I sought after this particular plant. I liked the idea of replacing my pink and white mandevilla with a similar color scheme. Unfortunately, I could not find this variety anywhere.
Months had passed, and my search for a pink and white Bougainvillea was unsuccessful. Then one day, a random trip to the Home Depot Garden Center changed my trajectory.
I Digress…
Over the past few summers, butterfly gardens have become a popular trend. Many botanical gardens have featured indigenous plants and flowers known to attract the colorful creatures. Nurseries have also joined the fad by creating designated areas to showcase the butterfly horticulture. During one of my trips to a local nursery, I came across a beautiful flowering shrub called the Duranta Erecta (aka Golden Dew Drop or Sapphire Showers). The bonsai tree (note: any tree can be grown as a bonsai) was perfectly pruned, allowing the violet blooms to hang from the branches like a cluster of sapphire jewels. The plant was featured in the butterfly garden section. I would have purchased it, except, it was well over my price point. Instead, I took a picture and saved it in my photo gallery. So, you can imagine my delight when, a few weeks later, I found the same plant at Home Depot for a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, only one plant remained, which I quickly purchased and brought home.
Revelation
My Sapphire Showers was the perfect addition to my garden. As I marveled at the beautiful plant, I had the following revelation. Sometimes, God will delay the things we think we want in order to provide our hearts’ true desires. In some cases, God will deny the things we want in order to provide our needs. Regardless of which scenario is applicable, I believe that we will recognize the fulfillment of God’s promises when we see it! At the very least, we will share a spiritual connectivity with those promises. I also believe that even though the fulfillment of God’s promises might not replicate our initial desires, we will not be repulsed by His provision. In fact, the ultimately outcome will be a welcomed pleasantry.
When I first saw the Duranta Erecta, I immediately recognized that it would best serve the purpose for which I wanted. Everything fit: the aesthetics, size and heat tolerance.
This gardening illustration serves as a metaphor for the manifestations of God’s plans for our lives. It demonstrates that while the fulfillment of God’s promises might be mysterious, they won’t be untenable or unpalatable. Furthermore, even if God chooses to fulfill His promises in unusual ways, the manifestations will not be completely foreign or undesirable. For example, I’ve heard some married couples, in God-ordained relationships, say that their current mates weren’t their first choice. However, many of these same people have also confessed that the people they married were exactly who they needed. There was a familiarity or an allure that caused them to pursue their relationships.
Clarification
God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Know that while we might recognize and love the promise, we might not always understand or like the process. The journey (the process) and the fulfillment of the promise are not interchangeable experiences. For example, even Jesus had trepidation regarding his process (the prospect of suffering and dying on the cross). Yet he loved the fulfillment of the promise (man’s salvation).
In our lives, we might travel various crooked paths, many of which we do not understand how to navigate. Hopefully, the fulfillment of God’s promises will give us confidence that our journeys have not been for naught.
These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world, (1 Peter 1:7, NLT).
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living, (Psalm 27:13, KJV)