I enjoy living in South America, with its year-long growing season and abundance of tropical plants I had never seen in Ohio. I especially love the native bougainvillea vines that climb to rooftops and spill their bright colors as they cascade down walls. When my husband and I bought a small lot and began building our house, the first thing I did was plant several bougainvillea in the yard. 

Over a dozen years later, I ponder the differences between these plants. Two vines facing each other across the backyard have grown equally tall, but the pink one seems to have hit “pause” while the opposite plant twines its red blooms along the top of the wall. A brilliant fuchsia bougainvillea has completely covered its overhead trellis, providing a nice spot of shade on hot Andean days. The vine outside my kitchen window recently lost all of its wine-colored blooms in a hailstorm, and another one has grown to my height, but has only minimal leaves and no blooms at all. 

These bougainvillea are all the same age, and experience similar environmental conditions, but each one is growing at its own rate.  

God brought my bougainvillea to mind recently when I was tempted to snap at my son, “You’re sixteen years old; it’s time to stop acting like a child!” And when I groaned in frustration at the comportment of a coworker who is much older than sixteen, but seems to fit into that age bracket. I’ve gone through many times myself when I’ve felt like the bougainvillea plant that hit a pause on its blooming. 

I’m grateful for the reminder that there is no set growth rate for spiritual development. Like a bougainvillea with gorgeous blooms, the result of spiritual growth is to bear fruit in every good work. The apostle Paul knew this wouldn’t be an automatic process, so he prayed regularly for God to work this out in the Colossian believers’ lives. Perhaps Paul’s best encouragement when we feel like we, or those we love, just aren’t blooming fast enough, comes from his reminder that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)