Blooming in the Ugly

The amazing thing about wildflowers is that they come amidst all of the ugly forest rubble of early spring.

Up through decaying leaf litter, scattered twigs, and crusty snow-tamped ground they spring to life and bloom.

A bit of hope for those of us who wonder why God doesn’t step in more often.

Why doesn’t He clear the way for His people, pick up the sticks, the fallen logs, move a few pine cones out of the way.

Why must we bloom smack in the center of so much hurt and darkness?

Then again, I have walked through cultivated gardens.

Somehow, I prefer a forest path and those determined wildflowers to all the carefully guarded blooms.

Last year we got eleven inches of snow right on top of our first glacier lilies and spring beauties.

My town friends saw all of the flowers in their yards die.

However, a couple days later when the hot spring sun melted the snow,

the glacier lilies and spring beauties straightened bent leaves, stretched tall, and bloomed in their full splendor.

They survived something that a hot house blossom never could.

Perhaps the Lord needs us to be this kind of flower, the one that can bloom in the darkest, ugliest places.

Matthew 5:16–“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”