Who’s the toughest flower on this rustic northern property, the last flower standing?
Some late season down-to-earth Daisy type?
Some wild weed with wiry stem and iron willed roots?
A leftover mum?
Maybe a geranium?
Nope. None of the above.
~
There she stands, where she’s held firm since early spring, when, nurtured in mere builder’s sand beneath paving, she elbowed her way up through a crack between patio stones.
Barely noticed through summer’s show, hidden in shadows and watered mostly by fickle rain, she survived, even thrived through heat and chill and soggy and parched and everything in between.
Killer frost hit weeks ago. Snowflakes have already feathered down. Summer storms and late hurricane winds buffeted yard and garden.
Mighty trees fell, but she remains!
Member of the Shrinking Violets Club. “Accident” of last year’s seed scatter (who knows how?) Grand champion, longest running bloom-and-re-bloom. She has much to teach us, Miss Pansy.
Let us listen to the lesson of her little life:
Ten Tips from a Powerful Posy:
1- You are not an accident. God knew all about you long before you sprouted. Don’t forget this. You were made for glory in your corner.
2- If you’re painfully aware of your frailty and smallness, good! The Maker’s “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9-10).
3- Be the best that you can be, but don’t seek the brightest spotlight. It isn’t healthy. Just settle into wherever God wants you and be how He made you, and He will sustain and prosper you.
4- Appreciate your environment. It might look rocky and depleted, but it’s what’s beneath the surface that counts.
5- When the heat of the day or the fury of hurricane winds beat hard on life, hide in His shadow “till these calamities pass by.”
6- Anchor to the Rock that’s way stronger than you. Sink your roots around Him. Cling close.
7- Let what’s poured from above nourish you. Good flower-soul food from a watering can bloomed me lush, and keeps me going now. Your soul needs regular feeding, too.
8- Leave seeds of your life to benefit others when you’re finally gone.
9- Praise the Maker from Whom all blessings flow.
10- And exude thanks, like I do.
-Pansy
(Human voice speaking now…) Thanking Him this morning…
~for planting me in my own little corner of the world.
~for being the power in my weakness.
~for sustaining and prospering me right where I am.
~for the places in my life that looked so rocky and bare, but that hid great treasure.
~for being my shelter in a time of storm.
~for being the rock to which I can anchor, through all the storms of life.
~for the nourishment of His word and His Spirit.
~for giving my heart thankfulness.
*****
Linked to
This post is as powerful as that posey. Thanks for it. You know we are growing through rocks here and are encouraged by your beautiful survivor.
Dawn
Thanks, Dawn. I feel like I’m growing through rocks right now myself and I’m encouraged by your encouragement.
BTW, I just went out and checked, and tattered though her bloom is, she’s *still* green and living — after high winds, pounding torrent and snow last night, and enough cold that Husband had a job scraping off the truck’s windshield this morning.
God bless you all!
oooohhh…. gorgeous! Awhile back, I wrote some posts about people who are “emerald” in life… meaning that they see the beauty in the ordinary, poetic wonder, where someone else might miss it… (based on a quote from a classic movie). This is emerald. Pure and sparkling. Thanks. Pansies are among my favorite flowers, and I love this random growing and all you found revealed there. 🙂
Thank you, Pam, for kind encouragement. I see this pansy every time I go in or out the back door, and “she” “teaches” me!
Blessings to you!
What an uplifting comparison with the pansy and God’s words. Really touched the very core of my heart.
Dropping by from ” Tell me a story”
I love pansies with their sweet faces and determination to stick with it and bloom in the face of adversity. You have related a life lesson too and I like the way you did that. Thank you for sharing at “Tell me a Story.”
Hi Joy! So glad you stopped by here and we met! And that God lifted your heart here! Blessings!
Hazel,
Pansies’ frail appearance really is deceptive, isn’t it? I love them, too, especially after this experience with the tough little one right outside my door (still!)
Thank you for hosting Tell Me a Story — and for the email reminder you send out. I don’t always have a *story* on my blog to link, but I like to be reminded to look for one, and to think of all the stories yet unwritten! God bless!
Such encouragement and wisdom to be gleaned from that tiny plant. Thanks for sharing this.
Yep, Janet, and she keeps on encouraging me, because even today, in the biting cold air, she’s still a-bloom, if rather tattered and limp! Incredible, the strength there can be in seeming weakness — just like His power manifesting itself in even my own pitiful weakness. Thanks for the visit and comment.
Love this post! It reminds me of verses from Isaiah 43 as written in The Message: “When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end, because I am God, your personal God, the Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you.” Thanks for sharing this and for visiting me at Doorkeeper. Blessings!
Well, yes, Renee, between a rock and a hard place surely describes where this little flower managed to bloom and flourish. Thanks for blessing me with a visit, too!