Moving Pansies

Winter—cool seasons—that’s when pansies thrive.

When the shadows begin to lengthen and the temperatures begin to fall, garden center parking lots fill up as gardeners, who have been waiting for this moment, push their carts or pull their wagons and fill them up with colorful pansies, along with mums and fall vegetables.

For a few months, these lovely green plants with their variety of colors, will grace containers, window boxes, and flower beds.

But then it happens, winter becomes spring, and the temperatures get warmer as the season moves into summer. But pansies can’t survive in warm-seasons. These beauties give out and need to be pulled up and moved out of the way. It’s time for new plants.

As a gardener and pansies lover, this is a hard time for me.

I don’t want to let go of these colorful flowers and I try to hang on to them as long as I can. But no matter how much I water them and remove the spent flowers to keep the plant looking good, I can’t make them into warm-season plants that survive the heat.

And then I see myself . . .

I think of how many times I’ve tried to be someone I’m not, forced myself into environments I don’t belong in, or resisted moving on when my time at a place was over.

For instance, my husband is a pastor. At times, God has moved us from a place where we were content. Just like those pansies that tried to survive in an environment that had changed—from cool season to warm season—the environment would change, or God was ready to do something different with that church or with us. And like moving my pansies was hard to do to make room for something new, it was hard for us to move.

Has this happened to you? Are you feeling the heat right now?

Like the pansies I wanted to keep, even though they weren’t doing well, we don’t do well either if it’s time for us to move on. It could be a church situation like my husband and me, or maybe a job. Maybe it’s a relationship that is becoming difficult, for whatever reason. 

Life is full of different seasons,
and sometimes God uses our environments
to move us from one place to another.

We can become so comfortable that we become complacenct, and we no longer of any effect for God and His Kingdom. Or maybe God is ready to move us to bless us or use us in a way we never imagined.

As I write this, I will soon be removing my stressed and suffering beautiful pansies, which aren’t doing well in this springtime heat wave we are experiencing and making room for other plants. The reds of the geraniums, chartreuse green of creeping jenny, and yellows of marigolds will thrive because they love the heat, and it’s their time to shine.

Let’s not be afraid to move when God is prompting us.

He is our Master Gardener, and just like I know when it’s time to move plants in my garden, He knows when it’s time to move us, His children, to a place where we can thrive. 

Lord, help me to realize when the temperature around me is getting hot and I’m not doing well that maybe it’s time to move. Help me to know that You are directing my steps because You love me and what me to thrive.

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.” 
(Psa. 37:23).