I have been having a talk with our summer flowers that are still blooming. “Don’t you feel stressed,” I ask them. “The freezing frost is bound to get you; you can’t go on being beautiful.” The breeze gives their heads a happy nod as they seem to say, “We don’t worry about those things, we just bloom while we can. We are not putting on a show; our beauty is simply being who we are.”

If only we people could learn from the school of flowers. It is no wonder that Jesus said to consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

What good is the stress and cost of maintaining outward beauty if we are wilting inside? And who just wants an outward appearance of religion. At best it is no more than a vase of artificial flowers. A beautiful handpicked wildflower from a child will bring more pleasure than a thousand perfect plastic blooming roses. Even though the flower will quickly fade, it has fulfilled its work of joyful love.

We can be artificial, or we can be real. We will never see flowers trying to impress anyone; they just are who they are. We are made in the image of God; can we be happy to simply be who we are in Christ?

“We should be like gardens,
Bright and sweet with flowers,
Blessed with heaven’s sunshine,
Cheered by gentle showers;
Violets are the kind words,
Roses, deeds of love,
Fragrant pinks and pansies,
Thoughts of God above.”