"I Forgot About the Purple Flower"

I am so excited!!  Today I going to have my very first "Guest Blogger"!!!  Now I am sure there are rules and "right way" to do this but I don't know them so... I am throwing caution to the wind and just doing whatever I want too.  Most photographers would have other photographers as their guest blogger to showcase a different perspective or maybe highlight a new technique, yay, no... not me!

Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about photography, but I am even more passionate about Jesus and the really awesome ways He minister's to us, so sit back, sip your latte' and enjoy my first guest post from my dear friend, Amity.

"I forgot about the purple flower. Our yard was ravished by a hail storm of epic proportions. The flowers I had tended were shredded, it actually looked like someone came through our yard with a week wacker. I was ready to give up.  I had labored and toiled, and now all was lost.  If it weren’t’ for the beautiful  aspen trees lining our fence, I would have given up totally. But they needed water.. and so I watered; but not with the same level of enthusiasm I had before, when the flowers were beginning to bloom and I could see the fruits of my labor. 

Just today I told Colin that I felt like everything around me was broken. The hail damage, the fish died, the fires in Colorado Springs, and today.. the vacuum cleaner stopped working. I was in a ball of self pity. I was angry, irritable and ready to give up.

Praying is always the last thing that comes to mind when I am in a time of despair… I guess I am broken too.  I prayed that God would give me peace, that these worldly things didn’t matter. That we could get a new vacuum, a new fish, new flowers, maybe even a new yard. At that, I tried to let it go.

Tonight I decided to water the  aspen trees.  While I was watering, I received the most amazing gift... the gift of new life. There was a bloom. A purple flower. Under all of the rubble and devastation, was life, preparing to spring through the rocks.

How much are our lives like this? Ready to give up, in despair... and then if we wait, let go, and keep watering and tending… right before our eyes, a lovely little flower appears."

The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass throughout it.  They will say, "This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.  Ezekiel 36: 34-35

Have a wonderful and happy 4th of July!!