Unknown Blooming of Grace

I was dropping J off at his Summer Day Care program this morning when some landscape grass caught my eye, so I took a couple of pictures of it. As I was doing so, a lady behind me (who I hadn't known was there) said, "Oh, I like that bush, too.

Unfortunately, I wasn't wearing my "Ignore me -- I'm blogging" t-shirt, so I had to come up with a quick answer as to why I was taking pictures of grass. "I really think it's interesting looking," I said, with great seriousness. Yes, I know -- that was a lie. I really don't think grass is that interesting at all. The truth is that I collect pictures. I saw seeds and grass, and thought, "I bet I might need that one day," so I took a couple of pictures, but I wasn't going to explain that to a total stranger. I also refrained from telling her that it was not a bush.

It did start a conversation going, though. Eventually she told me that she had some grass like that planted in her yard, but that it never "bloomed" like this grass.

Do we feel that way sometimes? Do we think that all of the seeds we plant and the grass we nurture just never blooms? I challenge you to find a scripture in the Bible which promises us that we will know all of the fruits of our labor -- that the end product of everything that God asks us to do will be totally understood and known by us. Part of faith is believing that if we walk the path God has set for us, and trust him, that he will take care of the rest. We don't have to see all the blooms; God does.

There is a commercial on TV for an insurance company (Liberty Mutual, maybe?). It shows one person doing something nice for another person -- maybe helping him to pick up all of the files that he dropped. Unlike the movie "Pay it Forward," where the one who was helped does a good thing for the next guy, in this commercial, someone who is watching what happened carries the love to the next person. Unknown to either the helped or the helper, the witness sees what happens, and then becomes the helper. It goes on and on (for 45 seconds), the witness becoming the helper each time. The helper never knows that he has sparked the next act of kindness. He never knows he planted a seed; he never sees the fruit of the seed.

I think it is important that we not forget the unknown ways that grace flows through us. It's not our job to worry about the final fruit of what God has us to do -- our job is to take the first step in faith.

And then there are moments -- gifts from God to us -- when we are blessed to see the fruit of something that God has done through us. Those moments are amazing and wonderful, but they are grace -- not our payment for services, but instead are our undeserved blessings.


Images: Boring grass at Cross Roads Methodist. The second photo is unrelated to the post, but I saw it this morning and took a picture. I'm sure the person who assembled the sign thought of it as two separate thoughts, but don't you think it could be one thought --> "Jesus is alive. Praise God. Help Needed."