Corona Devo 3130

It all started when I found a poem called "Daffodils", by William Wordsworth, and upon reading it, I knew it would be a nice piece that I could share with my friends at the nursing home this month.

I had a number of other short books to read with them, but I was most excited about the daffodil poem because it was Spring-y, classical, and daffodils are in season and bloom right now: so it was perfect.

What if I could bring them each a daffodil flower!? The idea jumped into my mind minutes before it was time to go.

The idea was so simple, but I thought it would be a brilliant way to bring a breath of spring into the institution-bound residents that I would soon see.

I pulled on some boots and in our yard and in the yards of neighbors: I found lots of daffodil greenery, but the only blooming daffodils were in my neighbor's yard. They were both already at work, and I had no other daffodil-options, and so after weighing my choices (and time), I snipped some.

These weren't my flowers to cut(!), and my conscience knew it. I also knew that I would ask permission as soon as I got back to my house, but I also knew that I had taken someone's flowers before asking permission to do so.

My after-stealing text was returned from both the husband and wife with kindness and mercy, and I was off to the nursing home.

• Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.  ~Romans 13:10 

• You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.  ~Leviticus 19:18 

• For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  ~Galatians 5:14

~~~

At the nursing home, we read about Wordsworth's Daffodils first, and I wish I could have recorded the twinkling eyes and the hearts of delight that the residents had when I handed them a real, live daffodil to accompany the poem. 

Sometimes we take Creation for granted, but we shouldn't, because a day may come when it will not be so readily available to us.  

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.  ~Psalm 103:15-16

The poem of springtime had done it's trick to usher in a sense of Spring, and the delicate bloom that each person held made the sunshine outside shine inside.

The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come,  ~Song of Solomon 2:12  

I know now that the idea to pick daffodils for my elderly friends came from the Holy Spirit--not me.  

All that I did was steal some flowers from my neighbor's yard, but the Lord had a good plan in mind for those blooms.  

I saw their eyes.  I felt their joy.  I shared in what God had arranged as we gathered together for a daffodil poem while they got to hold one in their hand.

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  ~Psalm 16:11

But the Lord wasn't done with those daffodils.

I had quite a few left over after storytime wrapped up, and so I took the bouquet and walked the halls to deliver a bloom to anyone that might need one.  

One man barely spoke to me except to say that he didn't want anything that I was bringing.  The hardness of life can make us hard, and I understand (and can appreciate) that.
He would not accept a daffodil, but he did accept prayer, and I saw him soften for a moment while I prayed for Him.

"...I was in prison and you visited me."  ~Matthew 25:36

~~~

Another lady that I hadn't met before softened as I darkened her doorway.  She beckoned me in and when I asked if she would like a daffodil, her eyes welled-up and she said "yes" emphatically, as she told me that "it's been a tough day".   

She cried when we said "Amen" at the end of praying, and I knew that she was one of the reasons that I picked those daffodils illegally.  We were meant to visit that day.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.  ~Proverbs 19:21

~~~

Daffodils or no daffodils--God has a plan for us today and He cares about the smallest details of our days.  He knows when we are hurting...and He knows when we need a breath of fresh air, and He knows us.  He clothes us with all that we need--whether that is a flower to pick-up our spirit, a hug from a friend, or a prayer to encourage our faith.  God knows, and He cares for us today.

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; (29) and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (30) Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  ~Matthew 6:28-30 

~~~

The daffodils changed my day, and I was blessed to be a part of what God was doing, even if it did start off with picking my neighbors flowers without their permission.  

But (just a reminder) that flowers fade.  Any joy or pick-me-up that we receive from flowers or nature or money or substances or even people...will fade. 

But God won't.  

He won't fade, and He won't fail us, and our connection to Him is His Word.  Pick it up today.  Gather a bouquet of His verses.  Plant His Word in our hearts.  The word of our God stands forever, and we don't have to ask anyone's permission to enjoy it.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”  ~Isaiah 40:8

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com