Blooms of Grace

Evening Primrose is a beautiful flower with a very interesting characteristic…it only blooms at night.  I was recently blessed to witness this event one beautiful, albeit hot, summer evening.  In the dusk of the evening, I watched with excitement each bud slowly open, layer by layer, into a full and vibrant yellow blossom.  Each of us in attendance at the event tried to guess which one would open next.  We then watched with amazement as the flowery scent attracted a hummingbird thirsty for the sweet nectar that each bloom provided.  As I watched the wonderful workings of God’s creation, I wondered, “What made that first bloom open and what was the signal for each additional bloom to open?”  My mind affixed upon the order in which each bud opened and I was reminded of our Lord and a parable He told in Matthew 20 about some workers in a vineyard.

In the parable, a landowner hires workers early in the day to work his fields and offers them a fair days wage for their service to which they agree.  The landowner then goes out several more times throughout the day and hires more workers paying them the same days wage as the first.  In Matthew 20:12, the original workers say to the landowner at the end of the day, “These men that were hired last worked only one hour…and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work…”  But to the landowner, the last worker was as valuable as the first just as the very last blooming bud of the Evening Primrose is just as beautiful to the eye and succulent to the hummingbird as the first.

I hope you will take hope in the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when He says, “So the last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16) for to Him, every Christian is valuable and receives the same inheritance no matter the order in which they bloom.

Just remember to bloom!

 

By Beth Drake

Originally printed in the Winter 2012 issue V5N1