Tulip Selfies
John Edgerton
March 23, 2022
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
~ Matthew 6
Quite a few years ago as I was walking out of church, I noticed a group of people posing for a selfie in front of the church sign. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were not seeking to be photographed in front of the church sign, but rather they were taking selfies with the tulips in the church’s flower beds. In their defense, the tulips that year looked particularly scrumptious.
The church, for all its beauty, for all its grandeur, for all its dignity and witness and wonder, could not compete with a bed full of flowers. We shouldn’t feel too bad, though, not even Solomon could compete with the flowers!
Beauty shouts forth from corner to corner of the earth. The flowers of the field (err…raised beds) proclaim unequivocally that love and beauty reign. Glorious rebirth follows a long cold season. Joy springs up from the ground so irresistibly that it stops people in their tracks. Joy makes a person miss their train, clock in late to work, miss the end of their podcast, stop doomscrolling on Twitter. Joy is enough to make grown-ups bend down low to the ground and snap a tulip selfie, grinning from ear to ear in front of reds and yellows and whites.
If that’s the kind of joy that a flower can create—think of the joy that you are capable of inspiring!
Prayer: Thank you God for the lilies of the field, and the tulips of the planter, and the crocuses of the yard.
