Confessions of a Blue-zilla

 Hydrangeas top the list of my favorite flowers, probably thanks in part to growing up with a hydrangea bush outside my childhood bedroom window.  Though largely neglected, every year it filled with huge pompoms of blue or purple blooms.  Orphaned by the time I married in my mid-thirties, I opted for a simple, low-cost wedding.  I wore a simple home-made gown and borrowed veil, and carried one white rose nestled in hydrangea, picked from someone’s yard.  For this frugal bride, there was no “bride-zilla” trauma to find the just-perfect designer gown and florist’s bouquet.

I still like blue. Our bedroom and quilt are blue. So are my kitchen and favorite recliner. I wear a lot of blue. And I have several hydrangea bushes in our back yard, including one that this year produced this amazing bloom. 

I'm prejudiced, but I think blue is one of God's best colors.  He brushed the sky and oceans blue. When He gave plans for the furnishings of the tabernacle, He assigned blue and its spectrum neighbor purple for their colors. In our culture, blue has come to symbolize loyalty, hence the term “true-blue,” meaning “staunch, unwavering in one’s faith or beliefs, unchanging, loyal.” I actually thought about that symbolism  in deciding on what to put in my garden-fresh bouquet.  What better trait than “loyal” to have in marriage?

Not that I have been perfect.  I take comfort in knowing that Peter, after three years of intimate follow-ship with Christ, lost it at the worst time.  As Jesus awaited the trials that would lead to his death, Peter cowered in the shadows, denying any relationship with his Lord. Paint him yellow. But Jesus didn’t write him off.  After Jesus’ resurrection, He came to His disciples at the Sea of Galilee, providing them with a huge haul of fish from which they could fix lunch. “Simon Peter,” Jesus asked repeatedly, “Do you love me?”  Simon squirmed around the more intimate, true-blue meaning of Jesus’ choice for the Greek word “love.”  Could he, the cowardly one, ever be worthy of His Savior again? Yet through this exchange (recorded in John 21), Jesus indicated He wasn’t giving up on Peter. 

 This same Peter wrote a struggling church, "If you are struggling according to God's will, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you” (1 Peter 4:19 TLB).  In other words, stay true-blue to Jesus.  He will never fail you.

As though an illustration of this concept, the “blue” in hydrangeas comes from an acid soil environment.  The pink and purple varieties rise from a more alkaline soil. Similarly, those “acid” times for our faith have the potential to “true-blue” our faith.  As fellow disciple James put it, “Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.  For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything” (James 1:2-4 TLB).

There are other blue flowers—periwinkle, lupine, lobelia and columbine come to mind—but I will always be partial to hydrangea. Any serious Christ-follower will have those “acid” testing times. But to bloom forth with brilliance is the right and true-blue response we need in living out our love for Christ.