I had a rose bush growing under two dogwood trees near the edge of my yard.
The poor thing never grew canes more than three feet or so long. If I were lucky,
I would see two or three pretty roses on them during the whole season. Last year
 I decided to move it near my carport where it would get more sun and better care.
It did grow longer canes and seemed to be healthier looking as its roots
 became acclimated to the new location.



What a grand show it put on for me this spring! I had to give it a tall trellis to climb
and it was lavishly covered with lovely red roses. Every branch had not less than
 four or fives roses each. If that were the thanks it gave me for transplanting it,
 I was paid well for my efforts.



I could have left it where it was and just hoped for the best, but I felt that it
could do better in a different location. I realize some plants can’t stand to be transplanted and have to “bloom where they are planted.” A wise gardener
will know the ones that need to stay put and the ones that need
 to be transplanted.



Our lives are a lot like that. It seems that God just plants some people in a specific spot early in their Christian life and they just flourish beautifully there. Perhaps
 they were more spiritually astute when they settled to begin with and were right
 where God wanted them to be. Other folks seem to just barely survive but stay
there anyway. Maybe it is time for us to check our spiritual location. Is this where
God wants me to bloom or would it better serve His purpose if I allowed Him to transplant me?



A journey through the Word will give us examples of people that God knew
would bloom better for His Kingdom in a different location than where they had
been planted. He looked over in Ur of the Chaldees and saw a man named
Abram who had the potential to be a man that God could call His friend. God
really uprooted Abram, “lock, stock and barrel” when He told him to leave his
country, his family—everything--behind and be planted in another far away
location. Abram “believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness...
and called the friend of God” (James 2:23). When you consider Abram’s future,
 it’s hard to imagine him anywhere other than where we find him after his
 transplant. Believing God against impossible odds to be the father of many
 nations though his wife was barren changed his life forever. His “seed”
 planted by God was the beginning of a nation created by God that fulfilled
prophesy and bloomed into Biblical history.
 God even changed his name to Abraham (father of many nations). His
 transplantation was designed by God who knew where he would “bloom” best.



A young shepherd lad, named David, was transplanted from the hills of Bethlehem
to the royal palace to succeed King Saul whom God had rejected because of his disobedience. God sent the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse, David’s Father,
to anoint the next king of Israel. Even Samuel didn’t consider Jesse’s youngest son who was keeping his father’s sheep. He looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lords’ anointed is before Him” (1 Samuel 16:6), but he was not the one. God told Samuel he was just looking at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.



One after another of Jesse’s sons passed before Samuel; each one rejected as
king. It must have been strange to Samuel who was so sure he knew whom
God would choose. But no, it was the youngest lad, David, that God wanted to transplant from the hillside where he kept his father’s sheep to become king
of Israel and leave his footprints in history. He was referred to as a man
after God’s own heart and is in prophetic history for eternity. His lineage
led to the birth of the long awaited Savior who sits on the “Throne of David” established by God. “And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom
forever: and his throne shall be established forever” (1Chronicles 17:14).
Isaiah saw in prophesy a Child born, a son given Who would bear the
government upon His shoulders whose name would be called Wonderful,
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, “Of the increase
 of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David…”
(Isaiah 9:6-7).



Let’s also consider Ruth, a Moabitess, who was daughter-in-law to Naomi,
 a Jewess. Naomi’s family had transplanted themselves to the land of Moab during
a severe famine in their homeland. While there, her husband and sons died
leaving her with her sons’ widows who were from Moab. When Naomi decided
 to return to Israel, she planned to leave the young widows there where they
 had been planted, but Ruth had other ideas. God had put it in Ruth’s heart to
believe in Naomi’s God and accompany her back to Israel. Through Ruth’s
marriage to the Jewish man, Boaz, Naomi’s property was restored to her
and Ruth became an ancestor of Jesus listed in His genealogy in Matthew 1:5.
God knew that Ruth needed to be transplanted to Israel where she
would bloom through the lineage of the Messiah.



Moving over into the New Testament, take a look at the major transplant that
took place in the life of Saul of Tarshish. He was headed for the top! Schooled by
 the best rabbinical teachers, being trained for the Sanhedrin, he was a zealot of the zealots to wipe out all Christians and the name of Christ from the earth. He sincerely believed that what he was doing was a service to God. His dramatic conversion on
 the road to Damascus, where he was stricken blind and heard a voice with no body, plucked him up by the roots and transplanted him in a field that he never would have chosen himself. God knew that once he was rooted in his new environment he would bloom heavily, and bloom he did! The majority of our New Testament consists of letters he wrote to the churches he established and they are still leaving his
 fragrance with us today.



No transplant is as important to us or as radical as the one God did when He sent Jesus from the ivory palaces to a lonely hill called Calvary. Jesus himself said He came to do His Father’s will, which led to a life of sacrifice and service to mankind beyond anything earthlings could imagine. But, Oh! How He bloomed! He’s the
“Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon.” His fragrance has never diminished nor
 will it ever fade away; it reaches beyond eternity where we will enjoy His essence forever—because He was willing to be transplanted here on earth to
accomplish our salvation!



What about you! Are you willing to allow God to uproot you from your comfortable
plot so you can be transplanted, rooted and grounded in Christ? Are you satisfied growing in the shade of the dogwood trees in poor soil and just existing or do you
 want to be in the Sonshine planted in rich loam, fertilized and watered by the
Spirit and by the Word? Do you want to be filled with vibrant life, covered with
 blooms and exuding the fragrance of Christ? If so, let your roots cling loosely
 where you are planted so God can move you if He chooses to.



You’ll never be the rose God wants you to be until you have been planted in
 the special plot in His garden chosen just for you.

Bloom where God plants you!

June 21, 2003
Delores Adams
All Rights Reserved.