Garden Variety

Yesterday I spent some extra time outside soaking up the beauty of the flowers. It was a lovely day to appreciate the blessings God has placed around me. The colors of the flowers were brilliant: the bright pink phlox, the blue delphinium, the rusty red coneflowers, the purple and white petunias, the orange day lilies, and the purple salvia. Each flower has such individual qualities: fragrance, soft round petals, perky shapes, tall or short, or early or late blooming.

There are several plants that are just beginning to bloom: the Black-eyed Susans and the butterfly bush are just getting their first blooms. Giving the garden some fresh new colors very soon.

Just like flowers, people have their own characteristics. We are all individuals, made like no one else. The world needs each one of us. We all have different skills and abilities to add to the world's mix and that makes it wonderful. That is what makes America great - the melting pot of nationalities. Every person is valuable to God and should be valued by each of us. That is the way God created us - precious and priceless.

"Just as each of us has one body with any members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us," (Romans 12:4-6 NIV).

As I go through this day, Lord, I ask that you give me insight to others and ways that I can encourage them in their work. Thank you, Lord for loving us all and help us to remember to love one another.