Thanks for joining us for today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Blooming for Jesus was written by Patricia Rabin.

I wasn't truthful about the tulips.

A gift from my younger daughter, the packaged bulbs traveled

home with her to the U.S. from Amsterdam after she visited there, so I made a show of accepting

the bulbs with great excitement, as excited as I was to reunite with her. But tulips are my least

favorite flower. Many bloom early and fade fast.

The July weather meantime made it too hot to plant them. Finally, however, in late September,

I planted my daughter's bulbs, sinking of her and thus planting them with love. With each turn of the rocky soil, my concern for the

bulbs grew. Giving their plant bed a final pat, I offered the bulbs a blessing. Sleep well, hoping to see

blooming tulips in the spring. My little project became a humble reminder of God's

call for us to love one another, even if we're not each other's favorites. Looking past each other's

faulty weeds, we're enabled by God to extend love to others, even in temperamental seasons.

Then, over time, mutual love blooms in spite of ourselves.

By this, Jesus said in John 13, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one

another.

Pruned by him,

we're blessed then to bloom,

as my tulips did the next spring.

On the same weekend, my daughter arrived for a short visit.

Look what's blooming, I said.

Finally, me.

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