So last Saturday I picked up a small bouquet of bright pink tulips with my groceries (and while yellow is my favourite color... how can you say no to pink tulips!). I came home, snipped the ends nice and fresh, took off the leaves below the water line, and filled up my favourite flower jar (previously home to some delicious creamed honey from Fredrich's) with the gorgeous blooms.
Instant happy!
I'm learning more and more flower keeping techniques from one of my absolute favourite books called, "On Flowers" by Amy Merrick. If you love flowers, like me, or are looking for a beautiful coffee table book that you will always want to flip through, this one's it!
Throughout the week, I refreshed the water for my little tulips, snipped the ends fresh once or twice again and was surprised, come Friday, at how well they were doing! They looked tall and fresh and almost as lovely as the day I got them! The flowers even survived being knocked to the ground by my ferocious little orange tabby cat.
I thought..."I may not need to get new flowers this weekend, I think these will last right through the week!"
You see, in the "blooming season" things feel just peachy. Everything is doing what it's supposed to be doing; the flowers are drinking the water with open stems to receive it and they are standing tall and bright -- everything is beautiful. But then, as I learned on Saturday morning when my tulips were looking a little more greyish purple than pink - the flowers begin to fade. Fresh water, clean-cut stems and sunshine can only take a sweet little clipped tulip so far. Eventually, all flowers get droopy, fade and lose their life when they are separated from the vine.
What a lesson for me. When I start to fade in my own day/week/life, I need to get connected to the True Vine. What does that look like? For me, it's a daily reliance on the Lord. Opening His Word in the early mornings, talking to Him throughout my day, leaning on Him in faith and thanking Him for what He has already done. As it says in the Bible, apart from Jesus, I can do nothing. Like a freshly cut flower, my best life is lived firmly attached to the source of life.
So, I will keep bringing home sweet little bouquets each weekend. Yes, for the beauty and the joy, but also to remind me to stay close to my Heavenly Father every single day.
John 15:5
I am the Vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
