My neighborhood is bursting with color right now. Our next door neighbor has a gorgeous dogwood tree full of pink and white flowers, one that delights me each spring with its blossoms (and disappoints me when they inevitably fall to the ground). The rose bush outside Adrienne’s bedroom window has tiny buds and shoots all over its branches, and barrels of tulips and daffodils can be seen on front porches up and down the street.

As winter has begun fading away, I’ve started wishing I knew more about plants. The beautiful, often unruly yellow flowering bushes I love so much are called forsythia, but I only know that after some serious googling. And I can identify those tulips and daffodils like a pro, but the other blooming plants around here are a mystery.

It doesn’t take a green thumb to appreciate God’s artwork though. Broad strokes of fuschia and fuzzy dots of white against dark branches reaching toward the turquoise sky line the roads we take to Annalyn’s school each morning. On our short commute, I point out to Annalyn my favorite blossoms and blooms, and we’ve had friendly debates about the prettiest ones.

But a few days ago, my little drama queen got herself all worked up because all the lovely plants we’ve been admiring are situated firmly in other people’s yards. “I wish WE had a pretty tree! It’s not fair! It’s like . . . like . . . we were SKIPPED!”

I laughed at her melodrama, but the truth is I’ve felt like that, too.

Many times I’ve looked around and noticed the blooms in other people’s yards and wondered, “When is it going to be my turn? Why don’t I have any flowers? God? Did You . . . did You . . . skip me?”

Maybe you’ve felt that way, too?

When you’re waiting for a promotion or a second interview, when you’re praying for a baby or a spouse, when you’re hoping that this showing, this conversation, this application or this audition will be the one.

Maybe you’ve looked around at your neighborhood, your family or your small group, your classmates or your co-workers, your book club or your aerobics class or your ministry team and wondered, “Am I the only one left? Will it ever be my turn? Why does everyone else get [fill in the blank] except me?”

I don’t know what you’re waiting for today, what dreams seem to come true for everyone else but you, what hopes are harder to hold onto every day that passes. I don’t know exactly how it feels for you to wonder if you’ve been overlooked, forgotten, skipped.

But I do know this: God has not forgotten you, and He will not skip you.

The Bible says God has written your name on the palms of His hands, that He would never forget you. Jesus said, “What is the price of five sparrows — two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.”

And well before that, Moses told the people of Israel that God will not leave nor forsake them, that He won’t fail or abandon them. In other words? He won’t skip you either.

I don’t say that in the hang-in-there-kitten-poster sort of way. And I don’t say that in a comfortable all-my-dreams-have-come-true way.

I say this with the hard-won confidence and faith of someone who has been left behind and felt overlooked, someone who has felt hope slipping out of her fingers more than once, someone who will certainly feel that way again. But I’m also someone who has been surprised to find a previously plain (metaphorical) plant blossoming in her front yard.

If you’re feeling overlooked today, like you’ve been skipped when the blossoms or blessings were handed out, don’t lose hope. Your wait may be longer, your path may be curvier, but He has not forgotten you. He has not skipped you or overlooked you; your spring is coming.

 

God has not skipped you or overlooked you; your spring is coming. - @marycarver: Click To Tweet Leave a Comment