One of my favorite things about where I live are the wildflowers that spring up across the pasture that surrounds our home. Starting in early spring when I walk out to hang up laundry on the line or to help my husband with something in the shop, I am always surprised at the spots of color that have appeared among the prairie grasses. The colors and flower types change over the course of the summer and are a constant delight to my soul.
The blossoms almost always inspire me to go running in to get my camera and spend the next half hour or so walking around in search of what is blooming and snapping endless pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras as I couldn’t afford to develop the hundreds of pictures that I have taken! These pictures are fun to look at and are helpful as inspiration for the many art projects that feature those wildflower varieties seen most often around the farm.
When I was a girl I dug up my favorite wildflower from down by our pond and transplanted it to my mother’s flower bed. It had what I affectionately called purple poof balls that tickled the nose when sniffed and small delicate leaves that would close up when touched. It may be the very flower that inspired Dr. Seuss! I now know it is called “cat’s claw sensitive briar”. The whimsical name only makes me love the flower even more. Well, mom wasn’t as taken with the poof ball wildflower next to her six lovely rose bushes as I was and it promptly disappeared.
I have one flower bed that has at least four transplanted wildflowers that I found in ditches along country roads. They are varieties I don’t see often in our pasture but they are growing well and it is so exciting to see them blossom each year. Sorry mom. 🙂
So, why are these flowers called “wild” flowers and the ones that are only a few yards away around the foundation of my home or in Mom’s rose bed called “flowers”? Did the wildflower become a flower when I transplanted it to my flower bed? If their wild beauty pops up in the wrong place is it pulled out because it has found its way to a “tame” location? Are they called “wild” because I can’t control where they grow? Silly questions I know, but they do enter my mind.
Perhaps they are wild because the God that created them is wild, wildly creative. He sprinkled these flowers in all sorts of places and, besides for some nitrogen imparting properties or edible/medicinal purposes some possess, they seem to be mostly ornamental.
One day I took a walk in the pasture on a mowed track my hubby had made for our daughter who was training to run on the cross country team at school. I was deep in thought when suddenly my eyes were drawn to a small, white, delicate bloom along the edge of the path. I stopped and knelt down to look at it. As I admired the flower an idea popped into my mind- this wildflower grows purely for God’s glory and delight. It would have grown, bloomed its’ beauty and died with great purpose even if no one had ever set their eyes on it besides God Himself. I just happened to get a glimpse of this one bloom, but how many others are here in this pasture that no one will ever see but God? The flowers are not in existence primarily for people to see. This flower isn’t important because I happened to notice it. No, I did get to enjoy it today, but they are here and have purpose primarily for God.
It felt like a holy moment and very appropriate that I was on my knees under a big sky. I picked the bloom and pondered it as a personal parable as I completed the walk around the pasture.
God seemed to whisper from the petals, “This wildflower blooms in worship for Me and fulfills its purpose even if no one else sees it. I let you happen onto it so you could hear Me speak to you today. Listen, little one. You are like this wildflower. You are designed with the great purpose of being in relationship with Me. Our relationship brings Me great glory and delight. Being in relationship with Me is enough, it is key, it is central. Everything else in your life will flow out of this relationship. Remain in Me. Live your life for Me like this flower is living for Me. Be still and know that I am God. Keep your face up towards Me in worship. Even if you could do nothing else in all your life, this would be your great purpose and worth living for.”
After the walk the flower was placed in my Bible and over time has been reduced to a dried stem which only I would recognize. But each time I flip through the pages and see the flower’s remains, my heart stills and connects with the Lord. There comes a knowing deep within that being in relationship with God is what life is all about. How often I need that reminder. How about you?
Psalm 103:1 Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
I appreciate your writings and I can say Amen as I really appreciate flowers and yes the wild ones also. Thank you so much for what your doing for our Lord and Savior