Flowers blooming have been a special balm to my soul this year. Especially the spunky ones. Not the ones blooming in beautifully tended carefully fertilized beds, but the ones which seem to defy physics by sprouting straight out of the side of a rock, overflowing with life. Beauty defiantly gushing out of brick and stone. Like these:
Maybe the stress of living in a covid world has pushed me over the edge in the reasonable personification department, but as I pause by each flower and snap a photo, I imagine them giving an acknowledging head nod, "I see you there, fellow fragile and fierce one. This is not an ideal circumstance; this is not 'my place' in this crazy world. But I'm here today. And as long as I am here I'll cling my roots into the rock and stretch my head up towards the sun."
That's where I want my beauty to come from: stretching towards the sun, my Savior. More focused on the Son than on my circumstances or my desire to be transplanted to some rich and comfortable soil. This is a fragile place to be, and a good one.
And that's where I want my spunk to come from: clinging to the Rock that is Christ. Finding my strength not in myself, but oddly enough, in my neediness. This is a fierce place to be, in a good way.
Because unlike the flowers, if I am not firm in faith, I'm not going to be firm in anything anywhere. (Isaiah 7:9) Here today, not feeling particularly 'planted' in this place, I am encouraged by the flowers beginning to bloom in odd places. They remind me that:
"When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
~Isaiah 41:17-20
Thirsty and fragile, I consider the trees and the flowers, and take courage.
