Blooming for Jesus

Thanks for joining us for today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled Blooming for Jesus was written by Patricia Rabin. I wasn't truthful about the tulips. A gift from my younger daughter, the packaged bulbs traveled home with her to the U.S. from Amsterdam after she visited there. So I made a show of accepting the bulbs with great excitement, as excited as I was to reunite with her. But tulips are my least favorite flower. Many bloom early and fade fast. The July weather meantime made it too hot to plant them. Finally, however, in late September, I planted my daughter's bulbs, thinking of her and thus planting them with love. With each turn of the rocky soil, my concern for the bulbs grew. Giving their plant bed a final pat, I offered the bulbs a blessing.

Sleep well, hoping to see blooming tulips in the spring. My little project became a humble reminder of God's call for us to love one another, even if we're not each other's favorites. Looking past each other's faulty weeds, we're enabled by God to extend love to others, even in temperamental seasons. Then, over time, mutual love blooms in spite of ourselves. By this, Jesus said in John 13, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Pruned by him, we're blessed then to bloom, as my tulips did the next spring. On the same weekend, my daughter arrived for a short visit. Look what's blooming, I said.

Finally, me. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from John chapter 13, verses 31 through 35. When he was gone, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me. And just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now, where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

Let's pray. Our loving Heavenly Father, thank you. As we look back on our lives, how you continue to mold and shape us to be more like you, we give you praise. When we think back to the people we were before we followed you, we may shudder in embarrassment or shame. May we find that each day, each month, each year, the flowers we become are more and more beautiful, less prickly, less weedy, and much more radiant as we reflect the image of Christ. It's in your name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.