A friend of mine in England lost her Mum last year after many months of loving care and attention. The loss was deeply felt.
Every Christmas Suzanne’s Mum would buy both herself and Suzanne an Amaryllis bulb, a beautiful tradition linking mother and daughter together in their love throughout the season and beyond. After her Mum’s stroke Suzanne carried on the tradition of buying two bulbs at Christmas, lovingly tending her Mum’s plant in the nursing home. But last Christmas was painfully different. “This year,” Suzanne related, “I sadly went to purchase a single bulb which would yield a single stock with flowers.”
Suzanne was not expecting hope to be rekindled in that dark Christmas season, but grace burst through that darkness. A bulb which would normally produce one stalk, produced two stalks! The stalks then grew and supported each other, blossoming just after Christmas with four or five flower heads on each. Suzanne had both her flower and her Mum’s together in one pot, giving Suzanne joy and delight, and the comfort of her Mum’s love and continuing presence even through the mystery of death.
The workings of grace that bring us back to hope again and again come so often through the unexpected occurrences in our daily lives.
Assurance and hope for the future in a flower?
Why not?!
“5Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.”
Psalm 42:11
