Flowers were my first love in the garden. They always have been.
Growing up in the Midwest, my absolute favorite flower was the lilac. It had everything I adored. It was purple, it was my favorite scent, and it arrived with spring. Long before I ever saw the blooms, I could smell them on the breeze. Their fragrance filled the air and announced that winter was indeed behind us.
That love for flowers remained when I moved to Alaska. There it came with the arrival of lupine and fireweed. These flowers fill valleys and mountain paths, surrounding you throughout the summer. Each bloom brings color and joy, filling the places where the snow and darkness of winter once lived.
Fireweed also serves a special purpose in Alaska. It acts almost like a clock. The same bloom that announces the end of winter eventually begins the countdown to its return. Talk of the fireweed and its fading fills everyday conversations; “Did you see the fireweed? It won’t be long now.”
Maybe that’s one of the reasons I love that Jesus talked about flowers too.
When He wanted to teach about the Father’s care, He pointed people toward them, “Look at the flowers. Aren’t they beautiful? They are clothed perfectly by their Heavenly Father.”
He made them that way.
He made them beautiful on purpose.
He intended us to enjoy them.
I know flowers serve important ecological purposes too because our good Father rarely does just one thing with His creation.
But have you ever stopped to simply enjoy them as His gift to you?
The incredible variety of colors.
The different shapes and textures.
Their fragrance.
The way some flowers seem almost insignificant on their own until they’re planted together in great sweeping drifts.
Yet, until this year, I felt guilty dedicating large portions of my garden to flowers.
They didn’t seem practical.
Like I wasn’t allowed to grow something for the sheer purpose of beauty.
What is that?
How did I arrive at that conclusion? That my time in the garden and the resources I spent on it had to produce something practical. Maybe it’s my German heritage.
Or maybe it was simply the familiar lie of performance rearing its head once again. Somewhere along the way, I started believing that the Lord would only be pleased with me if my time and effort always produced something useful.
Yet wasn’t He the One who created flowers simply to be enjoyed?
Because I belong to Him, I don’t have to earn flowers.
Neither do you.
Your life and your value are not measured by what you can produce.
That work has already been finished.
He has created you.
He has purchased you.
He has redeemed you.
You are His beloved child.
And I think He wants us to learn how to simply enjoy Him and the beauty He has created.
The flowers don’t worry because they have already been clothed. They are covered in beauty by their Father. Through Christ, you have been clothed with that same care.
You don’t have to earn His delight. You already belong to Him.
So plant the flowers.
Enjoy the beauty.
Not because you’ve earned it. But because your Father delights in giving good gifts to His children.
With love and hope,
Lacey Steel
