Unexpected Flowers

This week two unexpected flowers made an impression on me.  The first one is on a Christmas Cactus plant I have.  It was unexpected because the plant was in full bloom in December.  I actually mentioned in a blog before Christmas that I was hoping it would stay in flower for Christmas Day and so live up to its name – and it did.  So I was a little surprised to see another flower appear in April.  There has been just the one flower but it made me smile.  It was as though it was saying, ‘I want to do something spontaneous.  I want to be different.’

As the warmer weather has now decided to make an appearance, I have been doing a bit of pottering around the garden.  There is a small strip where I have snowdrops and crocuses.  They have now died off and so I was clearing the weeds that seem to be everywhere.  Clearing out some of the unwanted growth I suddenly saw a beautiful miniature purple pansy – just the one, all on its own.  It was hidden among all the weeds.  It was still growing in all its glory to its full potential, even though it went unnoticed because of all the other stuff around it.  It wasn’t something that made a splash of colour or caught the attention as soon as you looked at the garden as some larger, more striking flowers might do.  It just did its job, fulfilled its purpose whether it was noticed or not.  And it cheered my heart.  It was as though it was wearing the slogan ‘Just do it!’  It reminded me of a very old song that has the line ‘content to fill a little space if God be glorified.’

When we go to large gatherings, conventions, revival meetings or to hear some well-known speaker, you sort of expect to ‘feel’ God near.  You almost wait for the moment when you feel uplifted and encouraged.  But I do love it when God appears out of the blue; when we’re not expecting it; when He reminds us of some truth that we have deep inside and it suddenly comes bursting up to the surface and we just want to smile and say ‘Thank you Lord’.  He is a God who specialises in the one-to-one encounter; He is so very personal; He knows how to get my attention and whisper encouragement.  It was like He was saying ‘Don’t worry about doing things differently.  Don’t be concerned with all the stuff going on around you; just do what I sent you to do.  Even though it seems that nobody notices, there is a purpose and someone will be blessed, even if you never know.  Be you.  Be the person I made you to be and I will show my glory through you.’  I’m so glad that He has a habit of breaking through the mundane.  I’m glad He is a God who is interested in the individual and thinks of me.  Thank you Lord.