"No" or "Not Yet"?

 

Two years ago, my husband planted tulip bulbs in the front yard. When the season came that they should bloom, nothing happened. There wasn’t even a tiny hint of green anywhere. We watered, there was plenty of sun and the soil was right. Nothing.

The next Spring came and we wondered if we would see anything. We watered, there was plenty of sun and the soil again was right, but nothing.

We lost hope that we would ever see these bulbs bloom and so they were no longer on our mind.

The other day my husband came in the door with a big smile and proclaimed, “My tulips are coming up!” We went out together to take a look and sure enough the thin green leaves had pushed through the dirt! Six had been planted but at this point only two poked through.

A few days later two more. By the weekend all six were making their way through the soil into the sunlight.

We assumed they were never going to bloom. We gave up on the hope of a tulip garden.

Don’t we do this with our lives at times too? We have expectations that certain things “should” happen at certain times and when they don’t, we think all is lost.

We pursue something or pray for something and within that hope or prayer is an unspoken timeline. (You know the timeline I mean). The one where not only do we want or expect something to happen but we’ve given it a deadline. 

You want to accomplish something before a certain age. You hope that the opportunity you’ve been waiting for will arrive quickly. You work towards something expecting specific results in a specific range of time.

We do that with our prayers as well. We come to God with expectations rather than trust. When our prayers seem to go unanswered, we assume they fell on deaf ears.

God is not deaf, but He’s also not in a hurry. He doesn’t function on our time.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. -2 Peter 3:8

These plans you made; did you pray about them before you prayed for them? Did you sit with the Lord first to see if your desires aligned with His?

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”- Proverbs 16:9

Maybe you did pray about them and God put on your heart that this would be your direction. The soil of your life was right and you watered these plans! But wait. Why has nothing happened yet?

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”-Ecclesiastes 3:1

Maybe it’s the right plan, but not the right time.

Take the things you’ve been hoping for and bring them to God. Pray about these things and ask God if your hope is His hope? When we do that, it can be surprising the answers that touch our hearts.

There will be times that our desires for that hope diminish. There will be moments when we feel ourselves re-focus. When we allow God to establish our steps, we align differently with the things around us and often times develop patience in the waiting.

Maybe your tulips are coming too. It might not be a “no”, but a “Not now”

And maybe you were never meant to grow tulips at all. Maybe while you’ve been scanning the soil for tulips there’s a rose bush growing behind you that you haven’t even noticed.

Ask God to give you eyes to see what He has for you and you’ll see the world and your life in a new way.

-Pastor Patti