To Everything There Is a Season

Three years ago my back deck needed repair, or whatever it took to make safe a wobbly insecure well-worn wooden deck. Down it came and a lovely new one was constucted  that should last. I could visualize steps leading to my sloping back yard with a lovely crepe myrtle to accent it. I even had it planted by one who had a better green thumb than I.

And so for the last three years, I have pampered it, watched it carefully like an expectant mother would watch and wait for the first bloom.I begged for it to bloom as I had spent too much to see it dormant.

The lawn man came to mulch and I asked him for some encouragement and he said, "Miz, just leave it alone-in God's own time, it WILL bloom. Just watch what I say."

Well, August fourth arrived  and I just happened to look out my window after  Quiet Time, and I could not fathom what I was seeing. Above the deck rails, there was a colorful parade of blooms that I had not seen. I cried. I shouted for joy, all alone,but all I could hear were those gentle words -"in God's time."

As writers, we find ourself in waiting periods like these. We fret over our "babies" that we have written, been critiqued, been submitted umpteen times. In my study where I write, I have on the wall an article, "Dr. Seuss's first book was rejected (in large numerals) 27 times.
Next to it hangs an article "Dishing With Kathryn Stockett," She said her book, The Help, was sent to 60 literary agents before it was published!

What kept these people going? Stubborness, tenacity, or whatever it took prevailed.

Maybe it's the wisdom of Flannery O"Connor who said: "When a book (or manuscript) leaves your hand, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God's business."

Enough said...Thank you for those words. In God's time that overshadows the glorious hues of my little "late bloomer," a crepe myrtle which
reminded me of Your truth, so rich and beautiful. Maybe that is what Solomon meant in Ecclesiastes 3:1-"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." KJV