Protective Measures

I may have shared previously, but there is a forest behind our home; and in said forest lives a deer. While they have access to all of the Lord’s provisions, they insist on feasting off of my flowers - more specifically, my flowers just before their blooms open. For two consistent years, I’ve been baffled as to what the blooms would look like. The first year, I watched the flower as the stalk grew to a significant height. I couldn’t tell what color was going to present. One morning I went outside to look at them, as had been my practice, only to find all the blooms missing. I couldn’t imagine what happened. I finally examined the footage from the camera only to find a deer eating the blooms at around 6 in the morning. I was disappointed. The second year, my soror was leaving my house after 10pm. She said, “Your flowers look pretty.” I responded, “Thank you; and these should open any day now.” As I prepared to leave for the gym the next morning, I noticed the blooms were gone…again. Instead of racking my brain as I’d done the previous year, I elected to check the “beautiful bean footage,” to find Bambi’s relative have an early morning snack to the tune of 5am. Immediately I said, “I give up.” And that is where the lesson begins….

What have you surrendered because the task was too great or your hard work seemingly failed to result in something as significant as the struggle? When was the last time you truly threw in the towel? I wish my only action of giving up was in relation to the flower debacle, but I’d be lying. Transparently speaking, I’ve quit even as I’ve prayed for the situation to change. I questioned the words coming out of my mouth or dare I utter (or think), I’ve questioned the God, the big God, the sovereign God that I was praying to. Perhaps you’ve mastered this tension and I’ve thought that I had as well until I found myself giving up on the expectation of beauty for my ashes of defeat.

So, similar to my gardening, I left it alone. I ceased from looking for the stalk to appear in the same place it had for two consecutive years. And when it didn’t spring forth in it’s usual timing, I assumed that the last “harvested feast” by non invitation was the finale. In the place of what typically was the flowers that I’d never seen to fruition, emerged a large and seemingly uncontrollable weed. It was looming and served as a reminder that what I didn’t desire, won, until one day. To my surprise and certainly not to the expectation, two instead of one stalk appeared. It had the familiarity of what was. It was intertwined in the weeds and lest close inspection, it may have gone unnoticed. Yet it was strong and taller than the previous years and with more buds. Yet instead of simply awaiting its beauty to unfold, I made a deliberate decision to protect it. The picture associated with the entry demonstrates my proactive measures. Each evening as I take my puppy out for her last potty break before bed, I cover the stalks with a playpen the puppy no longer uses. Each morning, I uncover the stalks. While the blooms have yet to open, I’m hopefully, prayerfully (yup I said it) are granting them the safety to emerge.

What has incubated your fear and uncertainty? What has wrangled your trepidation or disappointment? More importantly, where might you find the courage and tenacity to release what you so desperately desire so that it may come to you? We are conditioned to “leave it all on the altar,” but how many of us actually engage the practice? There is absolutely nothing wrong with the desires of our heart as they reflect the things of God, but we can’t release to God while holding what we’ve relinquished. And, when God grants us the desires of our heart, how might we protect what He provides? I didn’t expect the flowers to return, but I continued to hold curiosity and hope of the splendor they carried. To my surprise, God granted what I wanted, but it was up to me to do what was necessary to protect it. If God grants our desires, He expects us to seriously maintain it. Isaiah 59:19 doesn’t say, “If the enemy comes in like a flood,” it says, “When the enemy comes in like a flood.” This suggests that it is our responsibility and God’s expectation for us to safeguard. Operating frivolously is not an option.

Return to your dreams. Meet God again at the altar. Plan for the answered prayer and plan for protective measures. Also, let us not be distracted by the weeds that show up; sometimes they are planted as a distraction for the answers to be birthed. The blooms haven’t opened yet. Until they do, the newly ordered netting (to replace the playpen) will continue to be a part of my evening routine, along with my prayers.