Devotional: A Lesson from the Zinnias

This time of year, the beauty of springtime flowers begins dying as the summer heat scorches them. It seems no amount of water will help them survive!

I have enjoyed growing flowers this year on our back patio. Since I was a little girl, I enjoyed Zinnias because of their bright, cheerful colors and variety of sizes. However, one pot of Zinnias did not grow as well as I thought they should this year. The pictures show tall, leggy stems with crunchy brown leaves, but still standing tall! 

Taking a closer look, I noticed there were two stems with “hope” at their tips! One had a tiny bud peeking through the chewed up leaves around it. The other stem was topped with several green leaves. I asked myself, “How can a tall brown stem produce green leaves and a bud at the top? I had almost given up and pulled them! 

Plants need several things to help them grow strong and healthy:

• Good soil
• Water/the right amount
• Food/fertilizer
• The right amount of sunshine/light
• Keeping the weeds out
• Trimming, pruning as necessary
• Pest control

If I did all the right things, surely, they would flourish! As I looked closer, I found a grasshopper enjoying his supper by finishing off the stubby green leaves around the single bud on one stem. I quickly shewed him off! 

A day or so later I looked at the pitiful looking pot of Zinnias and noticed two amazing things…the single bud was still hanging on, trying it’s best to open, and the second stem now had a tiny little bud in the middle of the green leaves! 

HOPE! 

Hope that although the plant looks dead, there still might be one or two beautiful blooms left. Then I noticed at the  bottom of the pot, some  tiny little Zinnias peeking through the dirt, working to grow into beautiful, bright, cheerful blooms before the growing season ends. The blooms that had died and dried, had dropped their seeds back to the dirt to start the growing cycle all over!

That is how it is with us as we look for hope. It’s there. Sometimes we just have to wait a little longer, and look a little deeper to find it!

The Lord is the source of all our hope. As we look to Him, He will give us hope. Even as we age or feel worn out, we can still have hope! “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31a).  He is the source of our growth.  As we share with others the hope that only the Lord gives us, we grow stronger too! 

Never give up on hope!

Written by WMU of Texas President Earl Ann Bumpus