February 2018 – Buried Potential

 

January and February can be funny months.  The excitement of Christmas is over, many of us are trying to be sensible and get rid of the excess pounds we have stored up in what has now become an annual eating festival. 

 

And the weather doesn’t help, cold and miserable most of the time, making you wish you were somewhere warmer and drier.  The trees are bare, nothing new is growing, nature seems to have gone on holiday. 

 

But buried in the soil thousands of bulbs are waiting for their chance, waiting for the signal to burst out and grow, filling our landscape with lush green foliage and the most vibrant colours.

 

We moved into the house we now live in one December a few years ago.  We had no idea what had been planted below the ground, and so in the spring we were rewarded with a surprise show, as all sorts of flowers burst out of their winter sleep.  It was exciting that first year, as we literally had no idea what was going to appear next.

 

I think those bulbs in the ground can teach us some important things about our lives, and the lives of those around us.  Sometimes we can feel dormant, feel we have nothing to offer, feel exhausted.  But we all have the potential to grow again, we just need the stimulus to get us going.  Life should never be about only looking backwards, life is a journey, and we must keep stepping along that road, growing afresh each new day.

 

But to grow each year, the bulbs beneath the ground have to start feeling the effects of warming rays of the sun, it may be shining on soil many inches above the bulb, but that effect trickles down, and the bulb knows it is time to grow.  In the same way, we can help those around us to grow, by giving them the signs that it is the right time.  By encouraging them, by nurturing them, by showing them some of the love we have been shown.

 

God has planted seeds within us and within everyone, we just need to find the right conditions so that we and all those around us grow.

 

 

Best wishes,     Malcolm Wearing