I have a daisy :) want to hear the story?
setting: Tucson, fall 2008. purpose: adventure to find something we didn't even know we needed until we found it!
fellow adventurer: Michelle Condon
The morning started with meteor-sized pancakes; one blueberry and one apple with candied pecans, drinking deep of endless coffee refills and drinking even deeper one of the others soul. Imagine IHOP, but smaller, like the size of a convenience store and worn, wooden tables with picturesque hand-painted walls. After leaving our name with an older, fire-engine red headed woman we see a bulletin board of the local sports achievements, budding gymnasts and smiley cheerleaders of the local high school. It is stuffed with pictures and is ready to entertain our waiting, hungry Sunday morning tummy's. We sat down and un-perched our menus from the little metal frame with jam and sugar packets and soon after the Promised Land might as well have fallen through the ceiling because the man with the coffee mug stopped at our table. Michelle convincingly (although its not hard to do with me) spoke of the huge, hearty pancakes she had delighted herself in on a previous visit to this fantastic, bustling, breakfast heaven, so I ordered them. And boy, were they delightful! Thank you Bobo's for making that happen. Note: if you are planning on visiting this wonderful Bobo's anytime soon and order pancakes, you best get your self the candied pecans (or was it walnuts?) along with whichever flavor you choose. If you do not you will be bitterly tasting your neighbors pancakes with the delicious candied crunchies and glance back at the cook to see if he might telepathically send some your way. Nevertheless, this breakfast was fantastic! Even if I couldn't finish it...
Okay, so the next stop; a bench on University Dr. being encouraged by Michelle's incredible faith in an incredibly stubborn circumstance. Lord, thank you for her joy! The world around her needs a breath of her peace in the midst of stormy waters. Details will stay recorded in time as they happened, unflawed and only in our memories :). Comfy benches and beautiful day though!
So...here we are. Ready for the real treat, the climax, the silver lining on a cloud thats already incredibly bright! Wilco. This store is a more spacial, and possibly more sophisticated version of la Grande Orange; the gift shop section (but who needs sophistication, honestly). If I was a recording artist, oozing with talent, sang my songs, travelled on tours and received oodles of money, I'd by a pair of earrings...or all the jewelry in the case... at this store. Fantastic, gold with jewels, deep, rich and romantic colored jewels, of tasteful size I might add! Very dainty and elegant with a hint of Bohemia. Anywho, thats what I thought I wanted, until I saw the daisy in a box. Michelle eyed the basil in a box and proceeded to imagine cooking uses and a good-smelling house. But I was ecstatic at the sight of having my very own daisy baby's! So I bought them, possibly out of impulse, sure. But That impulse has paid back! I now have a bright, yellow bud! As soon as I arrived home from the drive back from Tucson with my sweet companion Brianna, I jumped on those 'flower in a box' instructions and proceeded to imagine my dainty daisy growing. I cleaned all the seeds, as instructed, and whatta ya know, only one sprout! Well, there were three, but two were too fragile to survive very long. But, I loved my little sprout. I watered it, let the sunrise woo it to youth and eventually maturity. And now what do I see? Yellow! A bud! A yellow daisy will grow! It's not just a weed! Those twelve dollars weren't teasing me! I really see yellow! Yellow has never been such a wonderful color as it was when I stooped to water my suspecting weed and saw a tiny circle of bright, canary life. It is not a weed, weeds are not daisies, and daisies are not weeds. My flower will grow! And whether it lives 8 months or 1 day I will love it and smile about it every time I see it or think about it.
I think Jesus might feel a little bit like I did, nurturing the plant and seeing only pointy, weedy leaves. He loves us without end and waits for us without a second thought. But we provide no bud. No bright spring of life! Not even a tiny circle of golden sun. He waters us with His eternal spring (John 4:14) and shines His unfailing grace and steadfast love (Psalm 103:4 & 8) on our adolescent, immature and growing souls, but do we notice? Do we peak out of our stubborn lives to bask in His mighty, life-giving power?! I don't! I think I can push through myself and grow up all by myself, who needs living streams? Who needs the saving Son? I do. But I still try and live as a putrid weed on my own strength, just to be trampled under-foot and pulled up (Jer. 42:10, Ps. 52:5) from the gardener's hand. So much of the time I am no different than the plants in the other garden, the East field. The field that my Father does not tend. Someone could pass by me and not see the light that I should bring, people pass by and are not changed. They trample underfoot the creation that should tower over them with love; me. A daisy, a weed? A child of God, a servant of the world? Do I speak with love on my lips, or lies on my tongue? Does my heart beat for the poor (Jam. 1:27) or do I seek my own agenda? Do I seek to please my Father in heaven, or the world (Gal. 1:10)? I point no fingers, I walk the way of the wild donkey too often. Lord, walk through me the Opposite Way!
There were other glorifying parts of our day together, but for fear of recreating them for your mind as less captivating than when we experienced them that day, I will not tell them! Just know, it was great. And for all the little daisies in your life, the tiny but meteor sized blessings in your days, be thankful for them. Nurture them and be nurtured by them. And ask yourself, "am I stubborn weed? Or am I a willing, bright, yellow bud that shines?"
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