I had a rose bush growing under two dogwood trees
near the edge of my yard.
The poor thing never
grew canes more than three feet or so long. If I
were lucky,
I would see two or three pretty roses
on them during the whole season. Last year
I
decided to move it near my carport where it would
get more sun and better care.
It did grow longer
canes and seemed to be healthier looking as its
roots
became acclimated to the new location.
What a grand show it put on for me this spring! I
had to give it a tall trellis to climb
and it was
lavishly covered with lovely red roses. Every
branch had not less than
four or fives roses each.
If that were the thanks it gave me for
transplanting it,
I was paid well for my efforts.
I could have left it where it was and just hoped
for the best, but I felt that it
could do better
in a different location. I realize some plants
can’t stand to be transplanted and have to “bloom
where they are planted.” A wise gardener
will know
the ones that need to stay put and the ones that
need
to be transplanted.
Our lives are a lot like that. It seems that God
just plants some people in a specific spot early
in their Christian life and they just flourish
beautifully there. Perhaps
they were more
spiritually astute when they settled to begin with
and were right
where God wanted them to be. Other
folks seem to just barely survive but stay
there
anyway. Maybe it is time for us to check our
spiritual location. Is this where
God wants me to
bloom or would it better serve His purpose if I
allowed Him to transplant me?
A journey through the Word will give us examples
of people that God knew
would bloom better for His
Kingdom in a different location than where they
had
been planted. He looked over in Ur of the Chaldees and saw a man named
Abram who had the
potential to be a man that God could call His friend.
God
really uprooted Abram, “lock, stock and
barrel” when He told him to leave his
country, his
family—everything--behind and be planted in
another far away
location. Abram “believed God and
it was accounted to him for righteousness...
and
called the friend of God” (James 2:23). When you
consider Abram’s future,
it’s hard to imagine him
anywhere other than where we find him after his
transplant. Believing God against impossible odds
to be the father of many
nations though his wife
was barren changed his life forever. His “seed”
planted by God was the beginning of a nation
created by God that fulfilled
prophesy and bloomed
into Biblical history.
God even changed his name
to Abraham (father of many nations). His
transplantation was designed by God who knew where
he would “bloom” best.
A young shepherd lad, named David, was
transplanted from the hills of Bethlehem
to the
royal palace to succeed King Saul whom God had
rejected because of his disobedience. God sent the
prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse, David’s
Father,
to anoint the next king of Israel. Even
Samuel didn’t consider Jesse’s youngest son who
was keeping his father’s sheep. He looked at Eliab
and thought, “Surely the Lords’ anointed is before
Him” (1 Samuel 16:6), but he was not the one. God
told Samuel he was just looking at the outward
appearance, but God looks at the heart.
One after another of Jesse’s sons passed before
Samuel; each one rejected as
king. It must have
been strange to Samuel who was so sure he knew
whom
God would choose. But no, it was the youngest
lad, David, that God wanted to transplant from the
hillside where he kept his father’s sheep to
become king
of Israel and leave his footprints in
history. He was referred to as a man
after God’s
own heart and is in prophetic history for
eternity. His lineage
led to the birth of the long
awaited Savior who sits on the “Throne of David”
established by God. “And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom
forever: and his throne
shall be established forever” (1Chronicles 17:14).
Isaiah saw in prophesy a Child born, a son given
Who would bear the
government upon His shoulders
whose name would be called Wonderful,
Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
“Of the increase
of His government and peace There
will be no end, Upon the throne of David…”
(Isaiah
9:6-7).
Let’s also consider Ruth, a Moabitess, who was
daughter-in-law to Naomi,
a Jewess. Naomi’s family
had transplanted themselves to the land of Moab
during
a severe famine in their homeland. While
there, her husband and sons died
leaving her with
her sons’ widows who were from Moab. When Naomi
decided
to return to Israel, she planned to leave
the young widows there where they
had been
planted, but Ruth had other ideas. God had put it
in Ruth’s heart to
believe in Naomi’s God and
accompany her back to Israel. Through Ruth’s
marriage to the Jewish man, Boaz, Naomi’s property
was restored to her
and Ruth became an ancestor of
Jesus listed in His genealogy in Matthew 1:5.
God
knew that Ruth needed to be transplanted to Israel
where she
would bloom through the lineage of the
Messiah.
Moving over into the New Testament, take a look at
the major transplant that
took place in the life
of Saul of Tarshish. He was headed for the top!
Schooled by
the best rabbinical teachers, being
trained for the Sanhedrin, he was a zealot of the
zealots to wipe out all Christians and the name of
Christ from the earth. He sincerely believed that
what he was doing was a service to God. His
dramatic conversion on
the road to Damascus, where
he was stricken blind and heard a voice with no
body, plucked him up by the roots and transplanted
him in a field that he never would have chosen
himself. God knew that once he was rooted in his
new environment he would bloom heavily, and bloom
he did! The majority of our New Testament consists
of letters he wrote to the churches he established
and they are still leaving his
fragrance with us
today.
No transplant is as important to us or as radical
as the one God did when He sent Jesus from the
ivory palaces to a lonely hill called Calvary.
Jesus himself said He came to do His Father’s
will, which led to a life of sacrifice and service
to mankind beyond anything earthlings could
imagine. But, Oh! How He bloomed! He’s the
“Lily
of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon.” His fragrance
has never diminished nor
will it ever fade away;
it reaches beyond eternity where we will enjoy His
essence forever—because He was willing to be
transplanted here on earth to
accomplish our
salvation!
What about you! Are you willing to allow God to
uproot you from your comfortable
plot so you can
be transplanted, rooted and grounded in Christ?
Are you satisfied growing in the shade of the
dogwood trees in poor soil and just existing or do
you
want to be in the Sonshine planted in rich
loam, fertilized and watered by the
Spirit and by
the Word? Do you want to be filled with vibrant
life, covered with
blooms and exuding the
fragrance of Christ? If so, let your roots cling
loosely
where you are planted so God can move you
if He chooses to.
You’ll never be the rose God wants you to be until
you have been planted in
the special plot in His
garden chosen just for you.
Bloom where God plants you!
June 21, 2003
Delores Adams
All Rights Reserved.
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