PLANT. WAIT. ENJOY.

Saturday was the day. Our landscape C3 partners were feverishly planting some funky looking things in the ground called bulbs. No one was applauding. There were no cheers. The bulbs are nothing to look at. But a few months from now people will slow down in awe as they do every year on our campus. Parents will plant their children in front of the showy display of color for a photo op. I'll be grateful for the team that took a Saturday morning to do some tedious yet boring work that will result in brilliant beauty.

That's the way so many beautiful things work: plant, wait, enjoy. Consider...

• a beautiful friendship
• a beautiful marriage
• a beautiful garden
• a beautiful home
• a beautiful family

How did it happen? Somebody planted without applause: seeds of kindness, bulbs of disciplined commitment, tubers of respect. They fertilized it and watered it with perseverance, faithfulness, consistency. Then they waited for something beautiful to appear.

So plant what seems insignificant. Like an ugly bulb, in the right conditions, it will spring forth into something beautiful.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9, NIV)