We Are Flowers

I met him at a Starbucks down the road, this widowed man in his 70’s. When I looked up from my book, he asked a simple question. Then he sat down across from me and let me peek into his life.

He was waiting for a blind date, a friend of a friend, so he endured the awkward wait telling his stories to a stranger. He spoke of losing his wife, and reminded me life is short.

Who we have now—the main characters in our stories—are gifts to unwrap, to love, and to thank God for every day.

Yesterday, I found out a childhood friend passed away, without warning or expectation. I read thoughts from her husband and sisters, some of the broken-hearted she leaves behind. Even they admit, there’s much more there than sadness. One sister said she’s in awe thinking of her little sister with Jesus. Because this friend trusted in the Lord, we know she’s in a far better place than the rest of us.

She knows more than the mystery of being IN Christ—now she knows what it is to be WITH Christ.

“I haven’t been asked yet to walk the hard roads. Still there’s a sense of deep loss in my soul…”  –Christa Wells, How Emptiness Sings

Some of you have been through a similar valley, and some of us have not. Yet. But we carry through life this sense of loss, of longing for the emptiness to be filled. We look forward to the full mercy of Christ and eternal life.

We are flowers,

Eternal flowers, and

We are dust.

We were planted, seed-bearing,

To grow and reproduce,

To bloom ~ for a season.

We know not when

Our season ends,

But that some are picked suddenly,

Uprooted to another place,

Leaving pieces of themselves behind.

Some color landscapes long

Until they wither,

Alongside others passing away.

We are dust, passing dust,

Eternal dust.

 

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. Psalm 103:13-17, NLT