The Red Emperor Tulips

                              RED EMPEROR TULIPS

         This happened years ago but it comes back to me now in the form of the lesson it taught me.  I had planted Red Emperor tulip bulbs across the front of the yard, inside the fence.  In the spring the bulbs came to life and put up green heaves and stems with green buds.  I told my four year old daughter that there were beautiful red flowers inside the green buds.

         She was a very bright, logical little girl.  And I neglected to tell her that the buds were not ready to open yet and when they were, they would open by themselves. 

         So she opened them.  All of them.

         This is what happens when we monkey with God’s timing.  We try to get something sooner than the right time and end up making it take a lot longer. 

         There is a right time for everything.  A time for tulip buds to open, a time for a dream to come true.  A time for a prayer to be answered.  Actually the prayer was answered, and the answer was ‘wait.’  The four year old in me does not like to be told to wait.  The four year old in me wants to tear the immature bud open and have my flower, right now! 

         But God has a right time for things to happen.  No other time is right.  When I try to hurry His plan, I end up spoiling it.  There were tulips a year later, and they were beautiful.  The four year old in me learned a lesson from that.

         I can have my flowers, but I must wait for God’s time to make them bloom.