Unexpected Flowers

This summer I got kinda used to getting flowers.

Growing up I hadn't gotten many flowers. Before I started dating I remember only one time that I had recieved flowers. When I first started working, my boss got me and my fellow employee roses as a thank you. Other than that getting flowers wasn't something that usually happened to me except in my dreams.

When I started dating my boyfriend Kevin though this summer I fell in love with getting flowers. He had his sister secretly find out what my favorite flower was and after our first date he presented pink lilies to me. It was the first time I had ever gotten flowers from someone I liked and who mutually liked me as well. They were so wonderful. They filled my room and the entire basement with their fragrance. They cheered my heart whenever I saw them. They put a smile on my face and yellowed my nose when I got too close while smelling them.

He gave those same flowers to me several times throughout the summer, with the knowledge that while I was away in a foreign country he couldn't give them to me for nine months. So he found some earrings with the same lily painted on a heart with a white background to make up for all the times he couldn't get me flowers while I was away.

When I arrived in the country, I didn't miss the flowers all that much, but as the time got longer and longer they were something that I began to miss from home. But God always provides. There are flower shops everywhere and my favorite lily is in just about every shop. They would make me smile every time I saw them and now I use them for free smells and beauty for my eyes :) I am sure the natives think I am such a strange foreigner.

I told Kevin, that they had my flowers here and the sweet man that he is, told me to think every time that I saw them, "Don't worry". He was drawing from Matthew 6:28b-34

"Consider the lilies of the fields, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not clothe you,  O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kindom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble"

 

So I started doing that. Every time I would see my lilies on the street I would see that as a reminder from God, "Don't worry Jess, I have this under control". Amazingly he would send those flowers at just the right times.  Often it would be when I was getting off the bus, or having just a stressful time and he was so faithful to bring me those flowers. Even on my running route there is a flower shop so I get to see those quite frequently.  And when I saw them I would think to myself, "I would really like to have some...maybe I will ask for some for Christmas".

 

Then one day this week, my team mate brought me flowers. She came into my room with them and I broke into a huge smile, then I broke down in tears. I knew that it was God that gave me flowers. That he was saying during a hard time, "Don't worry Jess, just trust me."

 

I look at them now as I write, and I am just so thankful at God's goodness. God is able to bring flowers even when you are half a world away from home.

 

He is so good.