one little flower, one big message

As I was walking around outside the other day, putting things away for the winter weather, I noticed how everything had pretty much died.  The weeds (thank heavens), the leaves on the trees, the flowers, and the grass.  Nature was hunkering down for a new season.

As I walking up to the front door, I glanced down and saw this.

One sweet little petunia, perfectly blossomed and full of it's beauty.

I sat there astounded as I thought of it's journey.

First of all, I did not plant and petunias there, so it must have started out in the planter on the porch next to it.

Let's back up.

When I bought flowers to put in the flower bed, I had some left over.  The left over flowers accidentally got left outside for over a week without water, before I remembered them.  When I saw them, only a few had survived.

I hurried and planted the ones that somehow survived into planters by the porch.

Out of all of those in the planters, only one plant survived in each planter.  Those plants blossomed beautifully, despite all they had been through.

Half way through the summer, Luke found a new thrill in filling the planters with water over and over and over again.

I would have to try to save the drowning flowers, and re-plant them, over and over and over again.  Most of them died.

Finally, at the end of summer, with just a couple petunias left in the planters, Luke flooded the planters again, and the flowers were poured out onto the grass, where Molly promptly picked at them, at a few, and played with them.

We have since mowed the lawn several times where those flowers were, and the flowers were all but forgotten.

So, for me to glance down and see this miraculous petunia that had somehow defied all odds and rooted down yet again in the dead grass, to grow into a beautiful flower, was truly a testament to me of what can happen if we just keep going, no matter the obstacles that are constantly being thrown at us.

As I stared at this cute little petunia, I felt like it was stretching as tall as it could, and doing everything in it's power to show me how beautiful it was, how good the world is, how good God is, and how it was fulfilling it's role here on Earth to the best of it's ability. It was meeting the measure of it's creation to the fullest.

I loved how this simple little petunia was telling me so many messages, and giving life to much meaning to me in that moment. 

God is good.  Life is good.  There is always hope. Miracles happen every day.