Flowers are in bloom everywhere here in Basking Ridge this week!

            Lilies, Geraniums, Black-eyed Susans – they’re strikingly beautiful!  My neighbor brought me some of her Hydrangeas last night, with petals of sky blue, tinged purple at the ends.  I’ve read somewhere that the color of hydrangea flowers depends on the pH of the soil in which they grow.  That’s amazing! 

            Have you stopped to ‘smell the roses’ this week?  This is THE week to do it – sun in the bright blue sky, warm outside but not too hot.  Don’t let this week pass you by!

            On my deck I have not one but two containers of marigolds.  They’re such bright, cheerful flowers, probably my all-time favorites.  They smell nice too, don’t they?

            From a distance, marigolds of the same variety all look the same.  But if you stop and look more closely at each flower individually, and compare one to another, you will see subtle differences in the shape of the petals, in the pattern of colors…

            Don’t stop reading!

            I’m not going where you think I’m going with this thought (flowers unique, people unique, God is good,…)!  I’m going somewhere else entirely with this (even though God IS in fact good).

            Let me ask you this, what do you see when you look closely at the minute details in one little flower “which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire” (Matthew 6:30)?  What do you see?

            Do you see God? 

            Look closely, do you see The Creator of all?  What do you see about Him?  Do you see His passion for creation, infused into each and every detail of each and every flower?

            What else do you see?

            Do you see His great compassion, His love for you and me?  Do you see Him near, oh so near – as near as the flower before you?  Do you see Him desperately wanting you to stop and look and see?

            I’ve been missing Him in the rush of life, have you?  It’s just now, just this week, that I see Him so clearly once more.  The awareness of God, so near, has burst forth in me again, like a flower that has burst into bloom.  It’s amazing!

            Oh, I hope – and I’m praying right now – that this week you will stop and look and see Him too…