Day 52 Closed

I see you there, little flower. Your inmost places are closed to the world.

You are tethered and tight, hiding  your most beautiful and vulnerable places. I can hear your question resounding softly through your magenta petals — will the sun ever shine again?

I see myself there too- hidden deep in wonderment and worry.

I think about the people I pass by during my days. There are so many who are hidden and hurting. We are often offended by those who don’t respond to us the way we would prefer. We see the world through our own feelings, but we are generally inaccurate in our assumptions about others. In truth, we are all just trying to find our way.

What if we viewed those who are hurting as we perceive the bud of a beautiful flower? If we could do that we might see so much more. We might see potential and hope. We might see possibility and purpose. We are all in some way dealing with a terrible grief. Victor Hugo said it more eloquently than I ever could –“Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched.”

We are all in the process of an exquisite transformation. Our grief helps us to further seek the only One who can open us. It is a gift in a hard but beautiful way.

If you are feeling closed tight, I just want to say I understand. Although I may not know the particular recipe of pain you are feeling, I do know pain.

May we all love one another and treat each other with kindness until the Lord of all comes to open us, petal by petal.

Look, here comes the sun.

Philippians 3:13,14 ~”Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”