I live in a cement world. For the girl who grew up among
rugged mountains with air so clear she could see the Milky Way at night, this
cement encased world grates the soul.
So that’s what they are trying to say. Each is a physical
representation of the promise that God will take care of me. As every flower
tells the promise in Matthew in a different way, so too God will provide for
each of us in a different way. Some
flowers are elegant, some are gaudy, some have simple clear cut lines, some are
so tiny you have to bend close to appreciate their beauty. Maybe that is how our
lives are, each a different flower with its own beauty and I need to stop
wishing my life was “elegant” or “fame-worthy” and be content with the style of
life God has given me with its own unique beauty.
I also struggle with anxiety. There I said it. And there
have been mornings where if I don’t get up and walk as soon as I wake up, I
will spend the rest of the day trapped in anxiety. So I walk around and around
in circles in my little cement community. As I walk, my nature starved eyes
strain out all the birds and flowers I can find.
Thankfully, Ecuador is the land of birds and flowers and
they are here, even in cement-clad Caracol. I started paying special attention
to the different flowers I was seeing. As I looked into their colorful faces
noticing their detail and contemplating the imagination of the Artist
who came up them, I started to get the feeling they were trying to
tell me something. Cheesy, I know, I’ve
been told that before.
Then I remembered Matthew 6, “Do not be anxious about your
life… Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field… will he not much more
clothe you, O you of little faith?”
So that’s what they are trying to say. Each is a physical
representation of the promise that God will take care of me. As every flower
tells the promise in Matthew in a different way, so too God will provide for
each of us in a different way. Some
flowers are elegant, some are gaudy, some have simple clear cut lines, some are
so tiny you have to bend close to appreciate their beauty. Maybe that is how our
lives are, each a different flower with its own beauty and I need to stop
wishing my life was “elegant” or “fame-worthy” and be content with the style of
life God has given me with its own unique beauty. 
And so I have started to see flowers as physical promises.
Promises I can see, smell, and hold in my hand. As I walk I press them tightly
between my fingers hoping that someday, I can hold those promises as tightly in
my heart.
