Late Bloomers

By Karen Lembo –

(References taken from NIV)

Last year, shortly before Thanksgiving, I purchased two amaryllis bulbs, prepared the prepackaged soil as instructed, and planted the bulbs in identical pots. I placed them on either end of my mantle and considered how beautiful they would look for Christmas. One bulb immediately shot up a small flower, which quickly faded like a dud firework on the fourth of July. It continued to shoot up an 18 inch stalk and three beautiful blooms causing me to have to stake the plant so it wouldn’t break. Meanwhile, the other bulb just sat there. I would have tossed it, but upon closer examination, it had made tiny bits of progress, slowly pushing its little green stem upwards. “So much for symmetry on the mantle,” I thought.

Christian growth is a lot like these bulbs, isn’t it? Some people shoot right up and bloom with hardly an effort. Others appear to remain dormant, but upon closer examination reveal that they are making very slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Isn’t it amazing that when we look at these bulbs on the outside, we can have no way of telling what is going on inside, what they will produce, or when they will produce it? Compared side by side, the bulbs looked the same and they had identical growing environments. Likewise, people do not reveal their potential from initial appearances. Some produce fruit immediately while others seem to struggle and struggle.

But God knows what He has hidden within each one of us. He cultivates our soil and nurtures us with good things, expecting the promised harvest in His time. Some of us are just late bloomers. But we bloom, nonetheless. And sometimes that timing is just how God intended. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

I am praising God today for His timing in my life. As far as my career aspirations, I am a late bloomer, like that slow growing bulb on my mantel. I haven’t kept pace with my peers, who continued diligently at their careers while I took my sweet time at home rearing children far longer than I expected. As the youngest has become increasingly independent, I have abandoned my prior teaching career in exchange for a new adventure as a writer and an artist. I am praising God for how He is using me inspire others to offer themselves for pruning and tending by the Wise Heavenly Gardener. When all’s said and done, it doesn’t matter how fast we produce our fruit, nor what variety of fruit that may be. What matters is that we do in fact bear good fruit, and by so doing, reveal the glory of God.

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for appointing us each to bear fruit. We are not here just taking up space! Thank You for how You have designed me, and thank You for being patient with me. Your love is unconditional. Please help me continue to tackle the obstacles to my growth and help me begin to bloom, just as You have planned. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Karen Lembo is a writer and artist currently residing in Salisbury, MD with her husband Art, and their three children, Emily, Arthur, and Katie. She has extensive experience as a Bible study and small group leader, children’s minister, and Moms in Touch prayer group leader. Karen’s blog, “Living Above the Laundry Pile”, and her artwork can be accessed at http://www.karenlembo.com/.