T'is the Season of Lantana

 T’is the Season Of the Lantana. I’ve noticed, in recent years, the way one particular thing (perhaps an insect, an animal or a plant) seems to be more abundant than usual. A couple of springs ago the blue bonnets filled the fields and roadsides with a haze of blue and the air with a gentle fragrance. Another spring it was the evening primrose that took center stage - scattering pink carpets across the green.

This autumn, the lantana seem to have sprung up in the most unlikely places - bouquets of orange, yellow, pink, and scarlet. Ironically, this past spring I had to dig up the lantana that bordered my flower garden. Their leaves blackened and blossoms died. With my limited gardening skills I tried to save them - all to no avail.

Now lantana grace our field and the back fence line. They push up between cactus and weeds, sit at the feet of long dead trees and decorate fence posts. No human hand planted these beauties. The Master Gardener deemed it their season of abundance - and so it is.

 Perhaps the story of the lantana might be considered a picture of our lives - of the different seasons designed by the One who created us. Times of obscurity may leave us feeling bereft. We may long to do something others will notice instead of the mundane things that make up our every day lives. However, it’s in that time of faithfully doing what we have been called to do that God is working. The lantana didn’t spring up out of nothing. Something unseen, deep below the surface, was happening, and at the right time it bloomed.

Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t seeing the results you long to see. God works in the unseen. He is drawing you close and growing something beautiful inside you in and through the circumstances of your life. He will do more than you could ask or think, and you will bloom - at just the right time.

Blessings,

Linda