Flowers that don't wilt

I woke up this morning to a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. They came from my friend’s party over the weekend. She had these arrangements on the tables, and I got to take one home. I didn’t even have to put my name in a hat or anything. (She thinks I’m VIP!) As I put fresh water in them while brushing my teeth, I wondered how long they’d last. “Hang in there,” I wanted to tell them. “You’re so pretty and you brighten my day!”

And then I looked outside and saw today’s gray cloudiness, and I felt another sense of urgency. “No no no,” I thought. “The sun should be out.” Summer is going by so quickly, and we need all the sunny days we can get. I can’t bear the thought of fall right now. I need to wear my swimsuit at least 15 more times, and my friends and I haven’t hit all the rooftop bars yet, and I haven’t gotten to go camping yet.

And isn’t this so much of life? It feels like I’m putting my hand into a stream of water, and I’m trying desperately to stop the flow, to somehow catch the good drops, but they keep going by. They glide through my fingers, and I’m left wondering where they went.

On some vacations, I just want to sit around and do nothing…just stare at the wall. Because maybe this will make time go by slower.

A long and deep relationship ended, and I wanted to turn around and snatch back as many days spent with this person as possible. But they’re gone. Never to return.

I rushed to the hospital to say goodbye to my grandpa before he left. But I missed him by minutes, mere minutes. I missed him, and I miss him, and I can’t rewind.

But after watering my flowers this morning, I plopped down to write out my memory verse for the week. Which sounds very Christian-thoughtish of me, but I assure it’s not. I’d say I only memorize about 50% of the time. But I try.

This week’s verse comes from Psalm 100, verses 4 and 5.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever,
And his faithfulness to all generations."

Steadfast, endures, forever, faithfulness. God’s love won’t go away. Unlike the best vacation or the prettiest flowers, it goes on and on and on. Contrary to the relationships we cultivate in this world, a relationship with God sticks. And although I can’t walk through grandpa’s yard drinking iced tea with him again, I know there’s an eternity that he and I will experience together.

So, life is a really fast-moving stream of water. But thankfully God is the big rock right in the middle. HE doesn’t go away. And the flowers he gives me never wilt.