About four years ago I planted a camillia bush. I had never had one but I needed something to hide the cable/phone box in my front yard. And I wanted something that flowered. The first yearI got not one flower….nada. The second year I got exactly one flower. Last year I got two. I was ready to dig it up and plant something else. But this year it is loaded with buds and blooms. Beautiful pink blossoms. I am so glad that I didn’t dig it up. Standing in my yard looking at my now beautiful camellia bush full of blooms I began thinking.
There are a lot of us out there just like this camellia bush, year after year we don’t produce or maybe just a little bit but I am really glad that God doesn’t give up on us. In the gospel Jesus tells the story of a farmer in Luke 13 “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Every day we are given a blank sheet of paper—the new day that lies before us. We can fill the page with whatever we want: holiness, love, praise, service — or selfish ambition and bitterness. It’s our choice. We’re not limited by what we put on the page yesterday. It’s a new morning—a blank page—filled with opportunity. Even if you blew it yesterday, and ten thousand yesterdays before, you have today. You can fill today’s page with the presence of God in your life. Perhaps this is the year for you to fill out your page with beautiful blooms. Jeremiah wrote, Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:23)