Seasons of Growth

Each Februrary we watch and wait for spring.  There is usually a warm spell sometime during this month that lasts for a week or two and gets everyone excited for Summer.  Then March and April come with their gray clouds and persistant rain and after a while one looses all hope that warm weather will ever return.  (We even had two days when it snowed a bit in the past week.)  Anyway, the flower bulbs planted in my front flowerbeds are eagerly growing despite the gray and I can't explain how much joy I find in watching them poke their first leaves up through the hard, cold ground.  The crocous are always first in bloom and we have purple blossoms right now, they will be followed by the daffodils and early tulips.  Before long the late tulips and irises will be showing their colors and then we move into Summer. 
These flowers steadily growing is one of the things that gets me through the gray months here and got me to thinking about myself a little.  In a way we are all like these bulbs.  They carry a great amount of potential but they are not beautiful when you plant them (usually in Novemeber).  It seems odd to be planting in a time when it's cold and they stay tucked into the ground dormant for several months before the warmth and water cause them to send their first leaves up toward the sun.  Within several more weeks they are blossoming and I'm loving their colorful display.  The flowers pass and the greenery stays for several more weeks before dying off and the bulbs go dormant once again, waiting for the next warm spell.   The next year they begin to divide and create more bulbs and within a couple years there are four or five bulbs from the original one.
In our lives we too have seasons of growth.  I wish I could understand it better but there seem to be times when the Lord looks down and says, I think it's about time for you to do some growing.  These growth times can be filled with frustration and difficulting, questioning and searching for answers but as long as we are reaching for the Son (of God) we will bear beautiful blossoms.  These are the fruits of our labors, the lessons we learn through adversity and can be shared with others.  The newness of the lesson passes (as do the blossoms) and we move on with our lives enjoying the confidence that the new growth has produced.  Eventually the lessons become more internal and maybe we feel they're dormant for a while but that strength has become part of us and though we might not be aware we continue to grow quietly in our hearts and minds until it's once again time to reach for the Son.