Irises and Weeds--How to Glorify God Just the Way You Are

I've always loved the color lavender. From the time I could wrap my chubby little fingers around my first crayon, my mother tells me, I colored everything lavender. 

When I was 15-years old, I painted my entire bedroom this lovely hue. My grandmother told me it was an "old lady" color, but I refused to be deterred. Even today, although my grown-up bedroom is a more mature sage, I still decorate with accents of lavender.

It was because of this life-long love of lavender that I noticed the beauty of my neighbor's exquisite blooming orchid. At the beginning of my morning walk, the flash of color caught my eye from the corner of her front yard. Standing stately and regal atop a stem laden with blossoms-to-be was a flower the size of a softball. It was lovely.

Later, rounding a corner that bordered an untended yard, I was brought up short by a virtual sea of tiny lavender flowers. From one corner to the next of the half-acre, they covered the ground, their willowy stems pointing their noses to the sky and bursting forth in lavender profusion. My heart soared in delight at the sheer number of minuscule blossoms virtually everywhere.

At home, I dusted off my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers to find a name for the tiny flower that brought me such delight, but to no avail. It remains nameless, which might be just what the Lord intended.

Sometimes I lament because I am not an iris -- stately, beautiful, cultured, highly-sought-after. I recognize my weediness and chafe at it, often wanting to be someone different than who God has made me to be. Sometimes I envy others' appearance, personality, gifts, and abilities. Occasionally I even grumble at God, pointing out that if he had created me differently, I could serve him more effectively.

Then I experience joy and delight from a field of weeds--resting in what God has made them to be and living out their purpose to his glory--and I am chastened.

Do you struggle, too? Do you look around at others and wish to be someone you are not?

Will you join me in trusting the God who knit us together and gifted us just so, for His divine purpose?

Lord, you created me just as I am, for Your purpose. May I rest content in this and bring You glory.








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