Flower That I Am

June 14, 2007

If I were a flower, I've always thought that I'd be a wildflower, one that grows not in a tended garden, but in the forest, or jungle or desert or maybe in wild fields and along secluded pathways. Not ooohhed and aaaahhed over like the prized rose or orchid, but that which only someone who has a real love for plants and life would take notice of. I thought of myself as God's wildflower because of my temper, my temperament, my personality, my tendency to question authority , to be rebellious and to question and to wonder and wander and disobey and have a mind of my own. Thus, I related to this excerpt from a book by St. Therese of Lisieux ( hope I got that right) :

"[Jesus] opened the book of nature before me, and I saw that every flower He has created has a beauty of its own, that the splendor of the rose and the lily’s whiteness do not deprive the violet of its scent nor make less ravishing the daisy’s charm. I saw that if every little flower wished to be a rose, Nature would lose her spring adornments, and the fields would no longer be enameled with their varied flowers.
"So it is in the world of souls, the living garden of the Lord. It pleases Him to create great saints, who may be compared with the lilies or the rose, but He has also created little ones, who must be content to be daisies or violets, nestling at His feet to delight His eyes when He should choose to look at them. The happier they are to be as He wills, the more perfect they are.
"I saw something further: that Our Lord’s love shines out just as much through a little soul who yields completely to His Grace as it does through the greatest. True love is shown in self-abasement, and if everyone were like the saintly doctors who adorn the Church, it would seem that God had not far enough to stoop when He came to them … What delights Him is the simplicity of these flowers of the field, and by stooping so low to them, He shows how infinitely great He is. Just as the sun shines equally on the cedar and the little flower, so the Divine Sun shines equally on everyone, great and small."