Last summer, I developed a fascination with prairie docks and their tall, spiraling yellow flowers. This spring, I noticed initially the huge leaves, almost like overgrown spinach leaves, that developed early along Trail One. Then, slowly, the stems started to shoot oh-so-slowly toward the sky. Finally, the buds emerge and just sit there, for several weeks, with seemingly no action. Then, near the first of August, brilliant yellow flowers start to emerge and suddenly, the entrance way to Trail One becomes enshrined as though it were a yellow canopy welcoming hikers to the rest of my beloved prayer garden. Scientists are intrigued by prairie dock because it has the appearance of a similar plant that appears to have existed during the stone age. Originally, it grew in the prairie grasses of Illinois, towering six to eight feet high to surge above the prairie grass for sunshine. The whole scenario fascinates me. It starts to emerge early in the spring and then, so slowly, almost in a way that tested my patience this summer. it starts working to the day when the first yellow flowers come out...possibly a journey of two to three months. At times, it takes lots of patience and lots of faith to believe that they are ever going to open up, but they do in time. How amazing it is that God set creation in motion and then determined the amount of time it would take for the life cycle of both plants and animals, all different but all governed by His law of creation. Is it any wonder that Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55 that Gods ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts? The same is true, of course, in the time cycles of the trials, blessings, lessons and all the things He does to help develop our faith. He is not in a hurry; he takes the amount of time He feels is best to work with us and in His timing we are taught many lessons of faith and wonderment until, one day, to our surprise it has reached its flowering stage and God blesses us. As God says to us in Joshua 1:9, be courageous, dont be afraid, for God is with you wherever you go (or however long it takes).
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 23:38:54 +0000
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