A Little Late Summer Gift

My monkey grass has started blooming over the last week or so, and y’all, I love this stuff for so many reasons.

First of all, I am not a gardener. I love pretty flowers and landscaping, but I need plants that don’t require a whole lot of attention from me. Monkey grass definitely fits the bill.

It grows in sun or shade, adapts to almost any well-drained soil, and in my experience, you hardly even have to water it unless we’re going through a severe drought. Another thing I love is that it doesn’t completely die back during our winters here, so there’s always a little green in my flower beds year-round. But my favorite thing about it might be what it’s doing right now.

Over the past couple of weeks, little spikes of beautiful purple flowers have started popping up everywhere.

They arrive late in the summer, just when so many other things are beginning to wind down. Some of the flowers that looked beautiful earlier in the season are tired. The days are getting a little shorter. Summer is slowly making its way toward the exit. And then, almost as if on cue, here comes the monkey grass showing out. Those little purple blooms feel like one last unexpected gift.

It got me thinking about how easy it is to believe that the best part of something has already passed. Maybe we do that ​with seasons of life​, too.

We think we’re too old to begin something new. An opportunity didn’t happen when we expected it to. A ​prayer has gone unanswered​ longer than we imagined. A season that once felt full and exciting begins to change, and we assume there isn’t much left to look forward to. But God isn’t limited by the timetable we have in our heads.

Scripture is filled with people whose stories unfolded much later—or much differently—than they probably expected. Abraham and Sarah waited years for the son God had promised. Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Elizabeth had long since given up hope of having a child when she became the mother of John the Baptist.

God wasn’t late in any of their stories. And He’s not late in ours. Maybe that’s what I’ll think about now when I see those little purple flowers popping up in my yard.

They don’t seem bothered that the other flowers got an earlier start. They aren’t comparing themselves to what bloomed in May or June. They simply bloom when it’s their time to bloom. I love that!

Whatever season of life you’re in today, don’t assume that because something hasn’t happened yet, it isn’t going to happen. And don’t believe that because one season is winding down, God doesn’t have something beautiful waiting in the next one.

Sometimes His sweetest gifts show up when we least expect them, even at the end of summer.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11

August 26, 2026 Morning Brew