It Takes Time (to make a flower)

Yesterday's Daily Bread Devotion included this needful reminder;

Even though trusting Jesus as Savior makes us a new creation,

there’s still some ongoing work the Spirit needs to do.

And it takes time and work 

for Him to accomplish “true righteousness and holiness”

(Ephesians 4:24).

True righteousness and holiness=true beauty!

Do you ever weary of the work and waiting

for the needful hidden heart-art 

before the flower flourishes?

I needed to dust the dahlias.

Something is eating out the bud before it blooms!

The pest-control-pruning-process is vital 

to producing a healthy plume

(earwigs love a good dahlia-feast)

The tendrils of this flower vine needed constant intervention

until they learned to climb

Oh, it takes time to become who, in Christ, we ought to be

The road is riddled with potholes, to true humility

The stumble and the faceplant, though unpleasant helps God turn

A stubborn heart into submission; it takes time to learn

We cannot rush the Hand that wove us in our mother’s womb

Just as it takes time for a bud to break to bare its bloom

So too, it takes time to become the masterpiece of He

Who understands that we are dust and loves us patiently

It takes time to eradicate the nature of the beast

We tend to do the things we hate the most, rather than least

And were it not for God’s compassion for humanity

And His boundless redemption how desolate we would be

If our hope in Christ were for this life alone, alas

How pitiful and futile then would be man’s days like grass

But because Christ has risen from the dead, we too shall rise

Thus, we revere the time it takes to prepare for the Prize

…for it takes time to learn to love, to let Beauty unfold

To purify the motive of, and crucify the old

So when we feel discouraged by hope’s hurdles and mistakes

Remember, this is just the heart-art/heart-part before the bud breaks

© Janet Martin

Psalm 103:13-18

As a father pities his children,

So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

14For He [a]knows our frame;

He remembers that we are dust.

15As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

16For the wind passes over it, and it is [b]gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

17But the mercy of the Lord

 is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

18To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.