Hidden From View

I was in the mood to clean up outside yesterday.
It was sunny, warm, three-quarter-length-shirt-sleeve kind of weather.

I began to dig around in the garden with a metal rake.
Lo, and behold, I came upon a fully blooming purple hyacinth,
hidden in a protected corner of my flower bed.

I uncovered it and showed it off to whoever would stop and look.
Phil said, 'It never would have bloomed if it had not be protected
by all those weeds and dead leaves.'

Perhaps we can take a lesson from the hyacinth.

We may be hidden from view.
We may be covered with the 'dead leaves' and 'weeds'
of life.

But we can still bloom.

We can bloom even though no one's tool comes
along to uncover our beauty.

We can still bloom for God.
We can still do what we were created to do.

We can be spring in the midst of winter.
We can be beauty in the midst of death.
We can give fragrance even if no one
takes the time to kneel
down to breathe us in.

My mother wrote a poem about hyacinth's years ago.

"Oh, gathered clumps of the rainbows hue,
Though it was enough,
He gave perfume too."

Oh, the extravagance of God,
to give me a purple hyacinth
as a reminder that soon
this winter will be past
and that spring will come
with all its beauty.

Thank you, dear, holy, caring,
God of all hope and God of all comfort.

Thank you for your royal love;
purple, in all its splendor.