The sun was shining, but all I seemed to be able to see where piles of dirt encased snow on the sides of the road and the outline of leafless branches reaching high up in to the sky. It was cold. The cars were covered in coats of flaked on salt. Bright outside, but frigid and dead looking all around.
Suddenly, this picture on the left flashed in to my mind. I had to hunt through my photos to find it, and was surprised to see that it had been almost 5 years since I had discovered this little flower.
One spring day, I was walking in my backyard and looked down to find one small purplish blue flower thriving amidst the patio of bricks. I was struck by the contrast of its delicate beauty against the harsh, flat hardness of its surroundings. Clearly, a seed had been wedged between the bricks, where it began to take root and grow. It survived rains and winds and the tromping of feet that had ran in the place where it was growing. It survived assaults and a cold winter and despite adversity and perhaps, even more so, its beauty blossomed. Somehow, the right amount of sun and water and soil had nurtured the sweet little flower, and it grew. Now it reflected the glory of God, to me.
God is reminding me that even though I may look around and all seems dark and cold and lifeless, not just in my physical surroundings of winter, but in the current reality of my life circumstances, that there is hope.
Luke 1:37 says, "For nothing is impossible with God." He can take the bleakest, hardest, most harsh of circumstances, and place His seed of love and grace amidst that, and grow a beautiful flower. And this is what He does for us. He plants us between the crags of our despair and our pain and creates beauty beyond description. We may not see it now, but we are growing, and with the proper amount of tears and Sonlight and Living Water, out will sprout the evidence of His glory in our lives, and we, in turn, will bring beauty to our surroundings.
So, dear reader, think about this little flower. It's seed endured a long winter and then it grew, not in a garden where the soil was well tilled and sun light was abundant, but in an unlikely spot where it was tight and dark and lonely. Take hope in the fact that it may seem impossible to us that a seed could grow in such a circumstance, but as with this seed, so is it with our lives, nothing is impossible with God.
No comments:
Post a Comment