Well Doing

I love snapdragons! I always have. I used to like to gently pull the top and bottom of those interesting little flowers apart like a “ mouth” to reveal the yellow “tongues” inside. I would put my finger inside and pretend the flower bit me. So you know when summer arrived, I just had to go the local garden shop and get some snapdragons. I was pleased to find three different colors. Of course I bought the potting soil with the Miracle Grow already in it. It was advertised as effectively feeding the plants for 6 months (well through the growing season here).

For several weeks, I looked at the beautiful yellow and pink snapdragons every time I walked through the front door. I was somewhat disappointed at the plant that was supposed to bear white blossoms. Now understand this-- for me, the fact that the plant itself was alive was a big plus, never mind the bloom part. Two out of three blossoming snapdragons was definitely a good thing. But, I kept looking at all those green bulges, thinking they surely must be going to turn to flowers pretty soon. I wondered why they didn’t. The temptation was to just forget about the silly thing. I watered it more, and the bulges turned yellowish. I stopped watering it completely, and the bulges turned brown (Oh no, no hope for it now!). Why wouldn’t those bulges burst into flowers??

I decided to continue to water moderately and leave the plant in the pot. At the end of the season, everything would freeze and have to be pulled out of the pots anyway, and I would feel better about pulling all of the plants out of the pots at the very end of the season.

Continuing to provide care, but not worrying about making the unfruitful ones produce, I left the plants alone (OK, not entirely. Every once in a while I would sit on the front porch and play with the little snapdragon “mouths”… but not too much. ) The warm summer sun continued to beat down, the Miracle Grow continued to nourish the roots, and then the summer rains came. One day I was pleasantly surprised to notice a whole pot full of white snapdragons adorning my front porch, close to the door. That plant had finally bloomed, and the flowers were great. They had extra little ruffles on them that the others did not. How beautiful and worth the wait they were. I thought of the obvious scriptures of there being a time and season for everything, and God making everything beautiful in His time. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Then I thought about how else that snapdragon can apply to us. The Bible puts it this way- “Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint,” Galatians 6:9. I have to admit, many times I grow weary in well doing- just like I did with this plant (that I thought was just being stubborn) and reason to myself- what’s the use?. God in His word admonishes me to not be weary in well doing. Just what is this well doing? We most often tend to think that it is doing good deeds to others in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. That is, indeed, part of it, but it also is doing well for our own spiritual growth, too. Things like studying the Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15), meditating on God’s goodness and faithfulness to us, praying, being open to the work of the Holy Spirit within us, abandoning our inner selves to the Lord Jesus Himself in deeper relationship. These are all included in well doing. If we continue in these things- all of them- we will reap a harvest, within and without, if we just don’t faint.