God Brought Me Flowers

A few weeks ago I started getting unnecessarily obsessed with landscaping. More specifically, I was obsessed with OUR landscaping. Or rather the sheer absence of it. Now to my defense, there wasn't much there to work with when we moved in here, so it's not that I felt I had ruined all things beautiful and good. It's just that I couldn't help but notice that the dressings of our house looked more as if I was trying to start a new trend of weeds and stick-y little tree-bushes being the "in" thing.

You know how you can get something in your mind and you simply feel like you HAVE to resolve it? Like your quality of life will be dramatically improved if you could just FIX the issue. Well, I had gotten to that point with the front of our house. I was simply thinking about it too much. Hadn't spent any money yet, but I HAD given it too much brain power. Thankfully, God helped me recognize what was happening.

So I prayed and asked Him to show me what to do about it. To either give me the grace to let go of it, or to simply provide the actual trees or plants or bushes with which to beautify the place a bit. I didn't feel like He had given me the freedom to spend any money on it, so I just asked Him to provide the actual plants. In all honesty, I'm pretty sure that my request ended up being half-hearted for the sole purpose of not being able to think HOW He would actually do it. Who was just gonna GIVE me a bush or a tree or flowers to plant? It's not a normal occurence. I thought up all these different scenarios and couldn't see any of them realistically happening, so eventually I kinda forgot about it and came to appreciate the weed-looking plants (they may actually BE weeds...I don't even know!!) we DO have.

Being Florida, people spend a good bit of time outside, and consequently, many of these people are excellent gardeners. The neighborhood we live in has some very beautifully landscaped yards. So when the girls and I go on walks, we have about 3 or 4 houses that we especially like to walk by. We'll actually stop and look more closely at all the flowers, pointing out how beautiful they are.

Well on Wednesday of this past week, we were walking past one of these previously mentioned "all-star houses" and the husband-wife team happened to be outside laying down mulch. I had been curious about a specific flower we'd been seeing, so I stopped and visited with them for a bit and asked them what it was. Turns out the flower is called Amaryllis. Coincidentally enough, the man said he had a bunch of extra bulbs and would be more than willing to drop some by. So later that evening after Trevor got home, he dropped off 6 amaryllis bulbs!



It wasn't until midnight that it struck me. God had provided. Even when I didn't remember, in His kindness He provided flowers completely by His own doing. I know that in His wisdom He doesn't always give us everything we ask for, but this was one of those moments where all of a sudden the light bulb came on and I saw the fingerprints of God all over those amaryllis bulbs.

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I need to go do some planting!

Sarah