“The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”
(Psalm 147:11).
My mother’s home in town was about four kilometers from our country home. On an afternoon, I often visited her. At the end of my visit, we usually inspected her many flower beds. Impatiens, nasturtiums, roses, geraniums and a host of other flowers blooming in profusion.
I usually enjoyed this ritual, but on this afternoon, I listened half-heartedly to my mother’s cheerful chatter. My mind was on my desperately ill husband. Yet I didn’t want my mother to see the anguish I felt. I didn’t want to burden her. Besides, I feared a reprimand. Emotional talk unnerves my mother. In the past she had lectured me, “We do not give into self-pity.”
As my gaze followed her small frame, darting in and out of rose bushes, I thought, Mother, you had reason to feel sorry for yourself. Why didn’t you? After seven years of marriage, she’d lost her husband to the insanity of the second World War. Life had pummeled her; people had disappointed her. Yet, she’d managed to keep a sweet spirit. Her consistently upbeat attitude both amazed and infuriated me. Didn’t she ever feel weak?
Suddenly my mother stopped her chatter. She gazed into my face and whispered, “How’s Bill?”
“Not good,” I whispered back.
Her sky-blue eyes became moist. “I’m sorry, ” she murmured.
For a few moments she stared into a rose bush as though searching for something to say. “When life became unbearable for me,” she said quietly. “I planted flowers. They always bloomed for me.”
That’s why every spring I hurry to a nursery to get flats of bedding plants and pots of flowers of every description. I’ve discovered that flowers bloom for me too. In their radiant beauty I hear God saying, “I love you.”
Father, thank you for visible reminders of Your love. Amen.
Related Links:
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About the Author
This article was written by Helen Lescheid. You can read more about this author by clicking this link:
http://www.talk.thelife.com/helen-lescheid/
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