A phase is part of a cycle or course of development, as seen in Scripture, ourselves, and in the vegetation surrounding us. 

Remember the story about the cherry seeds that germinated in planters we kept on our deck in Alexandria and transplanted here at Vanaprastha? Now two large, native black cherry trees grow tall and wide on the north side of our meadow. Every spring, they send out green leaves followed by a profusion of white, dangling, lace-like blossoms then small red and black cherries in the summer and into the fall, for as long as they last. 

Growth, flower, fruit or seed. Like the fungi that mysteriously support life, as Merlin Sheldrake shows in Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds. Ecclesiastes 3:1 states: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. Time, season, stage, phase. Maturation, most of which happens internally.

A Growth Phase

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:7 NIV

During the growth phase, a plant focuses energy on growing taller, stronger stems and producing a profusion of green leaves using sunlight and water. But growth never happens alone. As with the fungi’s network of underground hyphae (HY fee) that tangle into mycelium, God directs the flow of water and nutrients to trees and shrubs—as to us.

In 1 Corinthians 3:7, Paul compares plant growth to spiritual work. The planting and watering work we do is nothing without God. Only He has the power to create the life-giving change, something I learned after turning away from atheism at age forty.

Until then, I was a child, an immature rebellious adolescent masquerading as an adult. Planted from my parents’ seeds, fed and watered, I grew physically but not spiritually. Thus, I remained stuck in the first phase, aging and feeling lonely while the seasons changed and life moved on to its inevitable conclusion. But after making the painful growth shift necessary in becoming a believer, I flourished and blossomed. I embraced the next phase, despite the shadow of death—or perhaps because of the fact that life on earth is mortal.

A Flower Phase

The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. Psalm 103:15-16 NIV

In the short flowering phase, small buds form and open into flowers, which are needed to make new seeds. Psalm 103:15-16 states that life is fragile and temporary; human life doesn’t last long. Like the grasses in our meadow and wildflowers that fade quickly, people decline then vanish from the earth when the wind blows. But fear not: God’s endless love prevails forever. 

How grateful I am for the flourishing and flowering I’ve experienced in my life as a believer. Never alone, never lonely, following His path, doing His will, like fungi, most of which is underground, unseen. All for His glory. I don’t worry about the future, because I trust His promises. What matters is the present, the Kingdom work He sets before me every moment of every day. This is the essential work of the flowering phase.

A Fruit or Seed Phase

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

During the fruit and seed phase, flowers turn into fruit or pods holding mature seeds. What is this spiritual fruit, according to Paul in Galatians 5:22-23? Love, that deep caring for others without expecting anything in return. Joy, the happy heart that comes from God. Peace, the quiet mind when life is hard. And of course, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Then Paul says, those who live by the fruit of the Spirit break no rules. This is the gospel, the good news that we believers are directed to spread, like seeds dropped or scattered to restart the cycle, returning to the germinating seed’s growth phase until we die.

Sometimes we get to witness the fruit of our efforts, as I did this past week when a former student posted on social media her thanks for my teaching. Even though I was not a believer when I taught her, I know now that I was guided in that mission from the beginning. For, as the apostle John records Jesus speaking in chapter 15 verse 5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Apart from Him, even in the first phase, I could have done nothing.

What phase are you in?

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