Five years ago, I was given a beautiful white orchid plant whose intricate and stunning flowers represented love, joy and a sense of peace in a difficult season. I have tried my best to nurture and keep this delicate plant blooming each year.
I have a history of being able to keep only the hardiest indoor plants thriving, so caring for this more finicky plant was a steep new learning curve for me. I selected a bright location in front of a window with western exposure where it could get adequate daylight and I could enjoy seeing the flowers many times on a daily basis.
After the first year, and much to my surprise, the orchid brilliantly bloomed again in May, nearly 365 days to when I first received the plant. These lovely blooms reminded me again of new life and the promise of the resurrection. Then after the second year, the orchid produced gorgeous blooms again in May.
During the third and fourth years, however, the orchid showed no signs of blooming or even a new peduncle (stem) emerging. Patiently, I kept the orchid prominently displayed even though there were just a few green leaves at the base of the plant, and I kept the watering and fertilizing schedule in place. I was aware that some plants skipped a blooming period, but this went on for well over two years.
This spring I was hoping to see some signs that the plant may start the blooming process, but was disappointed day after day. In early June, as I was getting ready to host a luncheon at my home, I looked at the non-blooming plant, and decided to clear space for entertaining and moved it to the mud room area. I randomly placed it on the bench of the white coat rack and proceeded to mostly forget about it, figuring it was not going to bloom again.
I routinely enter and exit my home through the mud room and store garden boots, sandals and sneakers all here, as well as hats, work gloves, sunscreen and umbrellas. I enter and exit numerous times each day and grab what is needed from the racks and bench area.
Mid-August, when I was walking through the mud room into my home, I was startled to see five beautiful orchid flowers standing tall and in full bloom, with a final bud about to open, all right there vividly on display on the bench. The flowers had been growing and blooming for a long time before I even saw them, as they blended into the white background of the rack. How many hundreds of times had I walked right by, within a few feet of the plant, and not seen these five flowers emerging and opening right before my eyes?
These beautiful and unexpected blooms were a heartfelt surprise and reminder to me of God’s promises and his beauty of creation in the world. This was a symbolic Godwink to me that God is all around us, even when I don’t see it/feel it/expect it.
God’s good creation in nature and in people is one of the ways our God reaches out to us. Some days I have to slow down and intentionally look more closely. God is everywhere, do we see this?
The world’s a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one comes close to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.
Psalm 40:5 (MSG)
Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.
Psalm 40:5 (NIV)
