State your flower!

A continuing series inspired by sights of Kauai.
If you could choose one flower to represent your life, what would it be? I tend to think the blue and purple hydrangea are “me,” the colors suggesting loyalty and the pompom “flowers” (actually brachts) for the life-experiences that have rounded out who I am.  Earlier in life I would have been “Miss Shrinking Violet,” but God has a way of working on our weakest spots.  I know people who’d be called “Mrs. Sunflower” (for her cheerful personalities) or “Mr. Red-Rose” (for his strong loyalty despite a few thorns on the way to knowing him).

The flower officially representing the state of Hawaii is the yellow hibiscus, whose trumpet-like blooms pop out of landscaping just about everywhere you go. It seems to announce, “This is a beautiful place. Just come and explore!”

The saying, “Bloom where you are planted,” was quite popular during my early adult years. Flower-adorned plaques turned up in gift stores. It seemed like such an innocent, upbeat saying, and I had such a plaque myself.  But I think it doesn’t tell the whole story, which is better expressed in two big messages of Ephesians 2:8-10.  Verses 8-9 tell how to establish a spiritual connection with God:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
We can’t work our way into favor with God.  We can’t have a spiritual connection on our own accord, no more than a flower can bloom apart from a stem and root system.  The vital life-connection is His gift, by faith. We can’t earn it by good works.  However:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (v. 10)

The God who created us with known and latent abilities has a plan for each of our lives. Salvation is not only “done” (bought by Christ’s death), it’s also “do,” in the plan and power of God for extending His work on earth.  “Sit, soak and sour” Christians (attendance without commitment) are disobedient Christians.  We’re not to wither up, but to bloom where God plants us.

Oh, my, to think of where He sends us when we say “yes.” Hibiscus may favor certain climates, but the person sold out to God says, “Whenever you send me, I’ll go.”

 

So, what flower would best represent you now? And which might  you like to be?