To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1

March is here, coming not like the proverbial  lion but with clear skies and bright sunshine. However, it’s still cold and snow will lie on the ground for weeks.   The dog has packed a  narrow snow tunnel toward the front door; berms from the plow reach all the way to lowest branches of the ponderosas.   Ice chunks curtain the eaves of the house and fill up the rain chain hanging outside the kitchen.  But, I see the slow drips of snow melt in the sunlight and spring will arrive officially mid month. I give it a heartfelt welcome!

For years I’ve kept two large Christmas cactuses and a yellow orchid gifted by a friend on the windowsill of our dining area where I write in the mornings. Recently my daughter gave me another one – an “orchid”- hued orchid.  The mini garden lifts my spirit on long, grey winter days, like the promise of spring this morning.   The cactuses actually bloom in late fall, not at Christmas and have been dormant for months. Their soil is hard, compacted  and are difficult to water. They need to be repotted but the last time I did that, the transplanting shock set them back a lot. It seems they actually like the adverse  conditions and spotty watering since they continue to thrive, blooming  every single year right on schedule!  

Right now the orchids are in bloom, their lovely waxy flowers opening on slender stems which have to be supported.  They too have their dormant season  but now in late winter, in early spring they will be in full bloom. Cactus and orchid, each in their own time, have cycles of resting and then  blooming profusely. It delights me that here on my windowsill, I see both the resting and the flowering going on all year long. While I wait for one, the other births colorful blossoms.

God’s Word reminds me over and over about timing and seasons. All things are held in His  hand.  He ordains  time  for  seasons of dormancy and season of  birth and growth,   “according to  every purpose under heaven.” Some translations of Ecclesiastes say, according to every activity, matter or intention. In other words, there is purpose in  both  dormancy and fruit for all things on earth. There is purpose even when the soil seems hardened to granite and difficult to water.

Last year and the first months of 2021 have been very difficult  because of Covid and the strange worldly kingdom of politics.  What we knew and acted upon is so different now it feels like we’ve been transplanted into foreign soil. It is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, dark and confusing. The ministry where God planted me has disappeared and truthfully, most days I wonder about His plans for me, my family and loved ones. Isn’t this the case even for the church, local and universal? Changes and adjustments have come  moment by moment, even as leadership continues to plant hope and water faith with the Word of God.  This season is for the Church of Jesus to remember that waiting precedes fulfillment.  Psalm 46 says to be still and know that He is God.   When we accept the dormancy of  the season God  ordains for us,  we trust Him and the eventual outcome. Isaiah says the waiting always produces fruit in God’s time.

But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

To the Church, the Body of Christ: What if you did not fight the adverse conditions of this season? What if you  took God seriously at His Word and believed it is for such a time as this that God calls His own?  What if you  believed eagles will soar and  dead looking things have life.

You might well question, “Well, I‘m not soaring like an  eagle like right now. In this hardened season where God’s potted me, am I cactus or am I orchid?”   Yes!  The answer is God’s “Yes.”