Flowers from Heaven

 I was NOT gifted with a green thumb.  I try to grow things and end up killing them most of the time.  The one thing that I have found that I am miraculously unable to destroy is this gift from heaven.  LITERALLY - it was a gift....

I must back up about seven years to share this gift.  My life was a wreck - I was a single mom, still in America illegally aka unable to work and was struggling to raise my little guy - then a cute one year old.

I was invited to attend a Bible Study for single moms.  I went, not really too enthused about the whole thing, only to find out the topic of the day was trust.  Now, understand, God gave me my name for a reason - to be a much needed, constant reminder to trust Him.  So there I was, sitting in this Bible study, my life in shambles, and God says again "TRUST ME".

At the end of Bible Study they gave each mom a styrofoam cup full of dirt with one tiny leaf in it... They said the leaf was from a teddy bear plant and as we watched it grow, we would be reminded of God's provision in our lives.  I thought "Ya, right!  Mine will be dead by the end of the week..."

But miraculously, it wasn't, and before I knew it there were pots of teddy bear plants on every windowsill in my apt, and then I started giving it away I had so much...

At first, it was just leaves until one morning during a particularly trying week, a tiny purple flower appeared....   Purple is my favorite color...  It was as if God himself had sent me a special delivery!  A reminder that He would see me through.  I started calling them my hope flowers and it truly seemed as if they would bloom exactly on days when I needed them most, and then,by nightfall, they would close up and be gone....

These flowers have moved with me to the house-that-love-built, and then again to Key West, and are now back at the house-that-love-built.  During my entire time in Key West there were no hope flowers and for the past two months that I have been back home, no hope flowers...  Until today!!

Today the God of the Universe sent me flowers... from heaven... to remind me... He has good plans for my life! 


"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Never forget the gift...

I must say, my hubby is truly a gift...
He drove over 8 hours in the middle of the night last Thursday to get home after a VERY long work week, then got up, still dead tired and surprised our son with lunch at school.  We had an incredible weekend together before he had to leave again this am...

I know I have been guilty...... of taking blessings for granted....  maybe this is the Father's plan in keeping us apart this first year of our married life.  That I would learn this vital lesson. 

I know what it is like to mourn for secret glances between spouses at school events, to see couples snuggled close during church as I sit alone.  I also know the greatest joy in the brief moments my hubby and I get to share. 

I pray that when the time comes and our family can finally live together under one roof, I will never lose sight of the blessing - to never allow a toothpaste tube to be something worth an argument, not look at the "honey do" list with frustration, to not take precious moments for granted...

But instead, to remember these long, lonely hours yearning for him to be home to brush his teeth, for him to be home lying on the couch instead of tackling household projects, to share a smile across the room...

May I never forget...