Free
Flowers
My mother
loved flowers in the yard. She loved
them enough to work at it. I remember as
a teenager watching her plant and weed and water and thinking that it didn’t
look like much of a way to spend a summer day.
That thought still influenced me much later in life when I had my own
home and yard. My greatest joy when
paging through any seed catalog, or planning any landscaping project fixes on
finding two words in the plant’s description: HARDY PERENNIEL.
About 15
years ago while paging through a seed catalog to help dream the last of the
winter snows away, I had an idea for our front porch. Our front door faces east and it occurred to
me that it could be the perfect spot for some morning glories. That spring I bought a rectangular planter,
and I ran some cord line from the planter up to the eve. The idea was that the vines would twist their
way up the cords and fill in that whole empty space with foliage and
flowers. I envisioned all of our
visitors being welcomed by an explosion of color.
Well, that
was the vision. The reality fell
somewhat short of that. The dog managed
to tip the planter over just as the plants were coming up, one of the kids
busted a couple of the cord lines, and there was a hot dry spell when we were
gone on vacation. All we managed were a
couple of spindly vines that never went much of anywhere, although we did get a
couple of flowers. That fall I cleaned
up the area and forgot about the morning glories.
The next
spring however a single morning glory vine climbed up along the ewe bushes. I almost pulled it out thinking it was a weed
until I recognized what it was. The
little vine blessed us with a couple of flowers for a week or two before
frost. It was a surprise to me. Each year the vines get a little bigger and a
little more colorful. This year I have
to say was a delight. There were enough
vines that they climbed up the ewe bushes, and across the front step and they
engulfed a little metal owl that greets people who come up to the door.
The flowers
are purple. My brother Tom would have
said that there are “deep, passionate purple”.
Purple was Grandma Suzy’s favorite color. The bridesmaids in our wedding wore lilac
purple. They have been greeting me every
morning when I finish my walk for weeks now.
They won’t last too much longer I know, so I took the picture that you
see here.
God’s love
is like these morning glories. His love
is tenacious, you can’t suppress it.
Even if you ignore it, he keeps sending little signs that it is there. His love is free. You don’t have to work for it, you just have
to open yourself up to be aware of it.
And he takes what little effort we put into the relationship and makes
it bloom. We both smile.
His Peace
<><
Deacon Dan
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