By Maureen Buckingham

Another home in our community has all perennials in their front flower bed, some of them being bushes. One day we saw these beautiful big flowers starting to bloom on one of the small bushes. We even stopped to look at it as it only had leaves to this point. I commented how nice the bush was as it stood out among the other plants.

The next day we noticed that all the flowers and buds were clipped off. I have to admit we were surprised and a little disappointed. We wondered if there was some important reason that the tree needed to have the flowers removed before they even fully bloomed. The only reason was that the petals would leave a mess.

This example reminded me of so many times I have seen and heard us as believers express a desire for God to move, people to be saved, healings, revivals but then when someone needs help, teaching, we’re led into difficult situations or the spirit wants to move we don’t want more work or our life disrupted. Revivals and the move of the Spirit have even been explained as messy at times.  However, wouldn’t we rather have the joy and blessing of God’s fullness and walk in His plan and purpose than to think we know better and then try to cut it short or try to make it fit our agenda or direction?

We need to love what He does, when He does it and how He does it. Interestingly, this spring we saw this same bush left alone and the flowers bloomed. Yes the petals did fall off to the ground but even that was beautiful in its own way.