Blooms in the Making

Spring is here! All around my neighborhood, people are out working in their yards, and flowers are blooming everywhere. Seeing them brought back a memory of a children’s sermon at a church I went to years ago. The pastor told the children to look out at all of us sitting in the pews. Imagine all of those people are flowers, he said.

“What kind of flower are you?” he asked the children. “Think about it, and after the service you can tell me.”

“I’m a dandelion,” I said to the lady sitting near me, and we shared a good chuckle.

But you can think of all of us as flowers in the garden of life. What kind of flower are you?

Some people are thistles, all prickly to deal with. Some cling to you with itchy intensity. Some look pretty at a distance, but are mighty irritating on close acquaintance.

Some people are briars. Beware their entanglements!

Some people are herbs. Their personalities seem to give a pleasing scent, and they impart savor to every project they are involved in.

Some are showy flowers, blooming with vivid color, while others are delicate shy flowers, peeping out from the shadows of more hearty plants.

Flowers can’t change their natures. Dandelions can’t suddenly become roses.

But thanks be to God, people can change. “Those who become Christians become new persons,” Paul told the Corinthians. “They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And we know that Paul knew this from his own experience. Before he met Christ, he was hunting down Christians and seeing they were imprisoned or killed.

So if you don’t like the kind of flower you are now, take heart. Turn to God — and be prepared to bloom!