
It’s getting towards the end of the summer growing season in my garden. I missed some important opportunities to prune just about everything, and then we had five days of rain followed by cloudy skies. Between bugs and blight, my zinnias are looking rough. I’m still getting some blooms, but not nearly as many and most of them have black spots on them.
I was out in the garden, harvesting what I could and deadheading the blooms that were spent or just in bad shape, when a beautiful butterfly caught my eye. It was busy working on the center of a pitiful flower. At least half of its petals were gone and those it still had were tinged in brown. If I hadn’t seen the butterfly on it, I would have definitely cut it and thrown it over the fence.
I marveled at how hard at work the butterfly was on the seemingly spent flower and I couldn’t help but snap a photo, then left it alone to do its work. I circled around the bed and when I got back to it, a bee was busy working on it. Needless to say, I left the flower right where it stood. It clearly still had worth to nature, even if I couldn’t see it.
I thought about that half-eaten flower for the rest of the afternoon. I thought about how quickly we are to attach worth to the people and things around us and even to ourselves, based on what we see. The Bible tells us that God sees with different eyes than we do.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
Friend, the truth is that if you woke up today, if you are reading these words, God is not done with you. You may feel like the half-eaten, tattered flower in my garden, but you are here and our God can still use you. Your unique journey matters, all bruises and scars included. Jesus understands. He too, has some scars.
A butterfly reminded me that we are never too far gone for God to use us. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂