Good morning…
“I loved this and thought you would too!” a friend texted me this image at 7:36 am. “God spoke in flowers today, and I, who was looking for words, almost missed the conversation,” said the quote from Ingrid Goff-Maidoff.
My friend is right, I loved it, a wise way to begin a new day.
Then at 7:38 am another text came in. “He just passed.”
First thing that morning, I had checked in with a friend whose husband for weeks had been lingering, laboring in hospice care. “He just passed,” meant her husband had been released from his suffering. His spirit had returned to the God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
I texted her love. I paused. I took a few deep breaths. Then, I picked up my phone and called my friend. Surprisingly she answered. We exchanged a few words. She asked me to share the news with our pastors from church and our Thursday morning classmates. What a privilege to spread the word, to ask for prayers to surround our friend in a time of great need. Within the hour a sturdy nest of loving support was wonderfully woven.
After a walk and talk to and from the horse farm, I went to this semester’s final therapeutic community group at PAWkids. I stepped into a feast of flowers and food, a concert of colors, soothing scents, sights, sounds.
One friend baked us a warm pound cake, with delicious icing, brought fruit and juice, yogurt and granola. Our group leader shared a wide array of flowers to help us express our many feelings, as we end one season before beginning another. With all of my senses sparked, I remembered back to the way my morning began.
“God spoke in flowers,
and I,
who was waiting on words,
almost missed
the conversation.”
We each chose multi-faceted flowers to express our variety of emotions, filling glass vases with beauty beyond our words.
A voice says, “Declare!” But what shall I declare? All life is like the grass. All of its grace and beauty fades like the wild flowers in a field (Isaiah 40:6, VOICE). What an important truth to cherish, as all of creation shifts from spring to summer, as each of our lives fade from life through death into eternal abundance.
This morning, I will take my vase full of beauty to my friend who is just twenty-four hours into her painful process of grief. God and I will speak in flowers instead of waiting on the perfect words.
…Sue…
