Don’t Live to Bloom: Live to Grow and Bear Fruit.

Recently, my mom came to my room holding a rose from my rose bush in our garden that I thought had died several seasons ago. The rain had resurrected the life in it, and in the midst of what seemed dead and barren, it bloomed.

For the next week or so, I admired the bloom, remembering all the things God had resurrected in me and my life season after season when all hope seemed lost.

But then, the bloom withered and died. Here and gone in what feels like a blink of an eye.

I asked God, “Is that it? All of that for the beauty to only last a moment?”

And I heard Him reply, “Don’t live to bloom, live to grow, and season after season you will bloom again and you will bear fruit, but if you live just for the blooms, you’ll always find joy fleeting.”

That rose with all its thorns is beautiful, but just as quickly as that flower bloomed, it shrivels up and dies only to face the seasons of pruning and dying and new life all over again and again so long as that vine gets water.

That can feel bleak when we look at the seasons of our lives. I don’t want to be like a rose that is beautiful but fades as quickly as it bloomed; I want to be a tree that bears fruit season after season, blooming but only that I might bear more fruit, and from that fruit give forth seeds that multiply.

We’ll face all the same seasons either way; there will come times of pruning and withering and winter and what feels like barrenness, but the fruit-bearing tree gives birth to things that last, that sustain, that are beautiful but also nourishing.

Some beauty is fleeting, but there is a beauty that lasts and only grows more beautiful in time. If you live to bear fruit, you will also bloom, but after the season of blooming, you’ll give birth to something more that’ll last, nourish, multiply, and sustain.

So by all means, bloom in your season, but then bear fruit, scatter the seeds, let the rain water, the Gardener prune, the winter frost, and keep growing and don’t give up when all feels barren because maybe just maybe He’s letting the ground rest so the soil is ready to yield something even more fruitful in His timing.

~

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Isaiah‬ ‭40‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs‬ ‭31‬:‭30‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John‬ ‭15‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬