It had been really dry for weeks. The ground was crying out for rain. Cracks were opening up at an alarming rate. The Rose garden had suffered accordingly as it hadn’t been given the attention that it should have. It seemed that there had just been a long list of jobs and events which pushed watering the garden a long way down the list of priorities.
Yet, one morning I looked out my kitchen window to see one bush covered in blooms.
Previously to this someone had remarked to my daughter on my strength and my ability to come through the other side of life’s storms. There were many days when I didn’t feel very strong. On other days, the stresses in my life threatened to swamp me. So, to have someone comment on my strength was surprising.
One thing I did know however, was that any strength that I had come from only one place, God. His Holy Spirit lived within me and it was the only way I got through each and every day.
Just like the Roses that had flowered in my garden, my strength is evidence that God is very powerful. In fact, my lack of attention could be paralleled to the stresses and troubles experienced by most of us.
Yet, when we soak ourselves in the care of the God who created us we will flower with a beauty that will tell the world just how powerful the Holy Spirit is that lives within us.
We get these assurances when we read John 14:16-18.
“16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
You may not think that you are flowering very well but remember that God dwells within you and sooner all later, maybe when life is at its hardest, you will see the evidence of God’s love and care.