Bloom!
Do you ever wonder why you’re in your current circumstances? Sometimes we have a choice as to where we live, who we marry, where we work or what paycheck we bring home, but at times we are also moved to and fro by other people or occurrences.
As a child my grandmother, Mildred, used to say, “My dear, bloom wherever you’re planted!” I can still remember her smile that lifted her glasses off her nose. She was a woman of true faith who had been raised in a very poor coal mining family in West Virginia and, though she didn’t have the money for college, she and my grandfather, Albert, did their best to provide for their family and give whatever extra they had to others.
Moving to Akron, Ohio from West Virginia was quite a culture shock for my grandparents in the early 50s. My grandfather got a job driving an early morning delivery milk truck all over northeast Ohio and my grandmother became a realtor so that she could have a flexible schedule to stay home with her two sons. The 4 a.m. shift was exhausting, but my grandfather didn’t complain. And trying to take care of two little boys while building a real estate business in a new city that my grandmother didn’t know was also a very difficult task. But the circumstances didn’t stop them from enjoying life and loving those around them. In fact, their main mission in life was not to live for their jobs but to use the resources God had given them to bless others.
My grandparents both passed away within six months of each other in 2005. My grandfather had multiple physical ailments that kept him in constant pain and my grandmother suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for the last five years of her life. It was wretched to watch two people I loved so dearly go through such a painful, drawn out end to their beautiful lives. I couldn’t understand why a loving God would allow some of His most faithful servants to live their last years in the humiliation of a lost memory and physical agony. But, as I think back now to the last years of their lives there is only one thing that sticks out—their unconditional love, kindness and encouragement to the nurses and doctors who assisted them. They had every reason to be upset about the pain they endured or the “bad cards” life had dealt them, but instead they shared the love of Christ with whomever they touched.
There was no elaborate fortune, camera crews or iconic obituary for all the world to see at my grandparents' funerals, but there were several hundred people who came one-by-one to my family telling us how Mildred and Albert had changed their lives for the better. Whether it was selling a family their first home or delivering a crate of milk with a smile, Mildred and Albert never complained or wished they had it better because they knew God would bring them joy if they only offered joy and love to those around them. They bloomed where they were planted.
“And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest” (Luke 8:15 NLT).
Bloom where you’re planted.
