Late Bloomers

The pink crepe myrtle finally bloomed — two full months after every other tree of its kind in the area and just as the changing weather signaled the season’s end. Between the rocky soil, too much shade and not enough water, the tree was doing the best it could under the circumstances.

Sound familiar? Like that tree, we’re often “... afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NRSV). At times, everything seems to go against us. Nothing comes easily. Life is a struggle.

But in Christ, we are not undone. We can persevere. We can bloom, even under the harshest circumstances.

 We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5 ESV