“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.” Psalm 118:1
Every spring, for more than two decades, my Papa Leon took me to an old home place in the country where he and I would pick daffodils together. Each year the daffodil patches spread and the beautiful yellow buttercups seemed larger than the year before. The daffodils display the beauty God creates in spite of the rubble left from the destroyed home place. The daffodil emerges from beneath the earth and opens its bright yellow blooms to the spring sun in spite of the weathered boards, rusted sheet iron, and tangled barbed wire cluttering its path. The storm came and destroyed the house and barn. The fire came and erased evidence of a life lived. The flowers emerge in spite of the destruction…this symbolizes God writing beautiful stories in our lives. Yet, each year the daffodils return in the spring as a symbol of God’s faithfulness. We did nothing to cause the daffodils to multiply or return each year. Their annual resurrection was a witness to God’s sovereign ability and willingness to make all things new. Our gratitude for the flowers can diminish the visibility of the rubble. When looking at the canvas of the pasture scene, all I see is the brilliance of the daffodils’ blooms. When I look at the canvas of my life through eyes of gratitude, I see the brilliance of God’s redemption and restoration in spite of all pain and loss.
© 2012 Lesley Sturm
