wildflowers in wild places

Today when I left on my walk the sun was obscured by a light fog, but look what greeted me from a ditch beside the road.

A friend once told me that if you just show her a yellow flower on the side of the road it will make her happy. She loves yellow that much.

If you show me any flower on the side of the road it will make me happy. I love wildflowers that much.

But if you show me a flower in a ditch, that will make me really happy.

Flowers in a ditch make me feel closer than a few eons away from that time that "God said let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself...."

I imagine the seeds that have laid in the ditch waiting through drought and cold and flood for just the right conditions to grow and blossom are descended from the original "herb yielding seed."

All the roadside flowers that grow without any cultivation, fertilizer, irrigation or even notice from humans make me happy because they thrive where it's surprising to even see a plant at all.

It reminds me of the familiar saying "Bloom where you are planted."

Which, if we remember who the Gardener is and what He can do, should give us confidence that we really can.

New Life

Spring is a perfect metaphor for the message of Easter. The new growth everywhere reminds me of the new life promised to us through our Savior Jesus Christ.

Because of His atoning sacrifice and death, we are raised, after our death, to eternal life through the power of the resurrection.

His sacrifice allows us to look forward to eternal life, and it also allows us to begin a new and better life every single day. As we repent, we leave the mistakes of the past behind and become a new better person. It's Jesus Christ who gives us the chance to change and the strength to do it. Because of Him, each new day can be a fresh new start.

In any difficult time, but especially with the death of of a loved one, the promise of eternal life is the best comfort. But even in our daily troubles and shortcomings, the mercy offered by Jesus Christ brings hope and peace.

Easter is a one day celebration, but its message is a blessing every single day. Not just for the big challenges but for every little one as well.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16

A favorite poem

This is a favorite poem by Emily Dickinson.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.