Little Late Bloomer
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1
Silly little flower, I thought when I noticed one sole beautiful rose fully bloomed when everything else in the yard was beginning its death march to winter. It was the edge of fall and winter, but there proud as can be was the little late bloomer, not an iota of concern in her pretty little mind that she had appeared in what compared with everyone else was the wrong season. What must everyone else have thought as they fell to the ground or at the least bundled up their leaves for winter? The little late bloomer didn’t care. I was a little late bloomer. I grew late, developed late, and did just about everything behind everyone else. How self-conscious I was! How shy, afraid, and different I felt! I eventually grew and developed, but I remained a late bloomer in other ways. When I met the Lord, I didn’t grow and develop because I didn’t know I needed to study God’s Word, develop a relationship with Him, immerse myself in the Body of Christ, and grow in God’s image. When I finally started doing this, I grew so slowly. I was always behind others, it seemed. When I fell in love with the Lord and desperately wanted to serve Him, I couldn’t seem to bloom. But once I became a genuine follower, I never stopped striving to grow. And grow I did! One day, I realized I had become a silly little flower fully blossomed in what in the world’s eyes must have been completely the wrong season. So slow and late I was! But there I was anyway, with God smiling down on me just like surely He smiles down on all the silly little flowers that bloom in unexpected and seemingly late seasons.
Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, countless others, and even Jesus, they didn’t come to full bloom in personal growth and service to God in the seasons the world might have expected and when everyone else did; they came into their callings from God in His perfect time. How discouraged we become when we compare our relationship with God and service to Him to those around us. If only we would realize we can, and will, come into full bloom in His precious time if we set our hearts and minds on Him, diligently study His Word, allow Him to transform us, and commit our service to Him. Are you a late bloomer? It’s not too late.