Colorado Wildflowers

      This past week while hiking up to the peaks of mountains in Colorado my eyes have been drawn to the wildflowers. They grow rampant out here, it's so beautiful. I would find them alongside trails and roads and covering fields. However, most interestingly, they grew like crazy in the tundra. The tundra begins at about 11, 000 - 12, 000 feet when the vegetation starts to dwindle. There would be a lot of rocks, and some grass, and the wildflowers. It could be close to 40 degrees up there with windchill, yet those little yellow wildflowers would bloom everywhere. (You can see these wildflowers at the bottom of the picture above.)

      I picked some of the flowers and have been pondering them a lot the past few days. At first, they were just simple and pretty, but now I see them to be much more resilient and unique. These blooms that are a part of my God's creation have been a door for the spirit to work in my heart. They have been teaching me and reminding me and giving me perspective on the constant heartbreak I seem to feel these days. My heart breaks for the disunity Satan has created in our world and in our nation, my heart breaks for dear friends of mine going through hard trials, and my heart breaks that I will never do or say the right things. Lately I've come to see the environment that both myself and so many others are growing in to be not that different from the harsh environment these wildflowers grow in.

      However, God physically reminded me this week that even in harsh environments, beautiful things can grow. And more than grow, those flowers are thriving. Up above the trees they are able to reach for the sun.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

                                                                                                                   - Romans 5:3-5


      The wildflowers continually brought to mind the truth of Romans 5. It's a passage that I know well and return to for encouragement again and again. It works in tandem with Philippians 1:6 which is a promise I hold to so tightly. I trust that he is working in trials and pain. I know in my head that this environment of heartbreak is for his good and his glory. But, that doesn't make the rejoicing come easy or the wildflowers less necessary. I needed that reminder this week. I needed God to put in front of me a physical form of his word. When I know a passage well it's easy for the power of it to be lost on me. Even in the harshness I can and I will grow. Others that I love who are united to Christ can and will grow. I can rejoice in the harshness and the heartbreak of my world right now because it is pointing me and others to be more like Christ. It's pointing me to hope in something so much greater than this world. I have assurance that the hope of something greater will come and I will continue to grow until the day it is completed. How beautiful.

      "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

                                                 - Philippians 1:6


      The flowers convicted me that I desire to grow in lower elevation, where it's comfortable rather than harsh. So, I am praying that I will rejoice in where I am growing now. I am praying that I will reach out for the son that I may grow through him. My prayer for those that I love is the same. May we all grow when it feels like we can't or like we never will or like we must get through this first and then we'll have time.

      And praise be to God for beautiful things. Always praise be to God.