Come and See!

Herb would always go outside early in the mornings to check on the cows and get his work tools ready for the day. If he came back in with a big smile, saying, “Get your shoes on and come outside! You’ve got to see this!” I knew something was blooming. It tickled him to be the first one to show me a tree or bush that was covered with blooms or a row of daffodils or Irises that had just opened. I would stand in the yard in my bathrobe searching for the newest flower, and He would beam as he pointed it out. It was almost as if Herb, himself, had brought me a bouquet of flowers from the florist! It was a sweet, quirky little tradition we shared. He knew flowers made me smile, so he enjoyed presenting them to me.

I heard him proudly tell his Sunday School class (more than once!) that I had purposely planted flowers that would rotate blooming all year ‘round; but honestly, it was an accident! I just randomly planted things, and they just happened to bloom in different seasons.

I remember thinking when Herb passed that no one would enjoy the flowers with me. Everything in my life had stopped, but that special connection we shared about flowers seemed to be the most unbearable loss at the moment. Maybe because it was spring.

Who would show me the flowers?

Sometime after the funeral, when the pictures came in, I was stunned by the poignant beauty of the scene. Can a funeral be beautiful? Oddly enough, several friends told us exactly that, after attending Herb's service in person or online. I didn’t even know the trees at the cemetery ever bloomed - and I didn't notice them on the day of the funeral - but Herb would have been beaming! I think God used the pictures to show me the flowers, just like Herb would have done. A bouquet of flowers on one of the hardest days of my life.

Meanwhile, back at home: …

About ten years ago, I planted a red rose bush in my flowerbed. It never did much, even though I fed it, mulched it, and pruned it. After several years, it was just a few scraggly stems with some blighted buds that never opened. I finally admitted defeat, dug it up, and pitched it over the fence. But every year, I would have to cut down a thin, thorny vine that somehow persevered and worked its way up through the mum I planted in its place.

After Timothy’s plane crash last year, I let a lot of things go - the flower beds included. Maybe that’s how it happened.

I walked outside early one morning, shortly after Herb passed, and noticed something I had never seen before - a rosebush covered with red roses. How did that happen? I had literally dug it up with a shovel because it never bloomed! Seemingly overnight, a stunning display of red roses had crowded out all the other plants on that end of the flowerbed!

When the roses finally died, I pruned the dead-heads and assured the grandkids that more roses would take their place. But they didn’t. Not even one more bud appeared the rest of the year.

The miracle rose bush. My invitation from God to come outside … and see what’s blooming.

***

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isa. 43:19 ESV

“For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name.” Isa. 54:5 NKJV