In full bloom ...

I mentioned that I was going to be speaking at the Tallowood Baptist Spring Ladies luncheon on Tuesday.  It was so fun and I had such sweet friends there.  The ladies who planned it did a fabulous job … not only in planning it but praying for the event as well.

As I was dropping Caroline off at her middle school, which is across the street from Tallowood, I prayed for the women who were coming and that we would be able to feel the Lord’s presence at the event.  I would have liked to have gone inside the church to pray but …. seeing how I run carpool in my PJ’s with a sweatshirt on top … I didn’t think it would be appropriate.

I could only smile when the director of the event mentioned that she had prayed over each table that morning and for the women who would be sitting at them.  I was so glad the Lord had taken care of even that for me.

But … THIS YOU HAVE TO HEAR.  I thought it was so cool.  Maybe it was just to me, but I thought it was beyond neat.  Or as my mom said … “just like our God.”

I have been working on today’s talk for months.  They told me when they asked me to speak that the theme was “in full bloom” which immediately made me think … I know NOTHING about flowers.  Nothing.

Like I barely got the ones in the pots at my front door planted a few days ago.

Actually I didn’t even plant them myself.  Bill got so tired of seeing the plastic pots sitting on top of the dirt that he planted them for me.

The verses I wanted to use were from 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 … 14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

I thought they were perfect verses because flowers have fragrance and we want to be the aroma/fragrance of Christ to the world.

But I still didn’t know much about flowers.

And as I prepared my talk I prayed over and over about what to share and prayed that His words would be my words.

On Sunday our pastor gave a message that was so similar to what I was going to say that I joked that my talk was going to be the “refresher” class for his sermon.  And I felt that was some confirmation that it was the right message.

But I still wondered … is this the right talk, are these the right words … do I share this story or that?

And I continued to pray all the way up until almost time to leave.  I had a brand new pink jacket (that I love!) that I was wearing and it still had the tags on it.  I cut the tags off and the extra button bag … and Y’ALL … attached to the tag was this little plastic bag of tiny dried roses.

The first thing I did was check all the labels.  Nothing about roses.  Nothing about flowers.  No reason AT ALL that there would be a little plastic bag of flowers attached to the jacket I was about to put on.

All I could figure is that the Lord wanted me to know He had it under control.

I might not know much about flowers, but I know Him.

And He created flowers.

And their fragrance.

And that was all the confirmation I needed.