There is a beautiful grandmother, Marie, in a little town in northwestern Saskatchewan, St. Walburg, who has this incredible flower garden in the front of her house. The flowers are overflowing and beautiful. She has posted a sign: Come in and smell the flowers!
What a warm invitation!
But this invitation is also a kind word from God. We have been gifted with such a beautiful body (even if parts of our body creeks in old age), caring family and friends and the daily enjoyment of life. How can you add up the value of taking the two small grandchildren for a walk and you stop in to buy them an ice cream cone? How can you measure the delights and giggles that this little act of kindness elicits?
This kind invitation to come into Marie’s garden and enjoy the flowers must be a daily invitation to recognize and enjoy the blessings of our everyday lives.
Come and smell the blessing of a decent night’s sleep. You got up, could look after yourself, put your shoes on that got the day started. We went out to the kitchen and made your much appreciated cup of coffee.
On the way to work, your car sharing buddies are full of teasing and mindless chatter that always fills the vehicle with some laughter. The thirty minutes to work is never dull. These buddies keep you alert and always searching for the witty com-back to one of their stories.
Tonight, after the supper dishes are cleared away, there is the daily reading session with your ten-year old. He needs this extra practice reading. This takes a lot of energy but you recognize that it is never tedious or boring. I am the parent and I want to help his learning, no matter how long it takes.
Your spouse tells you with kindness how good it is to have you at home, caring for the duties of family life and having time just to be with her; brief though that be. How wonderful to be wanted and to be wanting of her and the two children, two dogs and one bird!
We haven’t got to the stage of being able to pray together as a family, but how good to be able to thank God for the blessings of this particular day. It will never come by again in this life, but it was sure good to have lived it today.
The invitation to come in and smell the flowers in our little town, is an excellent invitation from God to smell the flowers of daily life. Recognize and be grateful for all the blessings that happen on this one day. Do not miss the goodness that is right in front of our eyes.
Stop. Smell the daily flowers. See the blessings of this particular day.
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