Purple Flowers

I just love Ireland. If I could go anywhere in the world my number one choice would be Ireland. Its really hard to explain why. I think it is mostly just based on movies and photos that I have seen that show incredible green landscapes and fields of tall grass blowing in the wind. I remember seeing one movie that was filmed in Ireland that included a scene shot in a huge field of purple flowers. And from that time I was determined that I needed to go to Ireland to see this field of purple flowers. Well, one day, a few years ago, I was sitting in my living room with my friend looking at random Youtube videos on the computer. I told my friend about my strong desire to go to Ireland. My friend was a very “make it happen” kind of a person so he suggested that we take a look at what it would take for me to be able to go to Ireland that summer. Well, I was soon very disappointed to find that it would be incredibly difficult to make it happen, and would likely not happen for many many years. I was quite sad. I remember saying “I will never see my field of purple flowers!”

Well, the next day I went for a walk. At that time in my life I used to go for a lot of walks. Near my house was a large hill. I lived in Kelowna, BC at the time. There are big hills in Kelowna. This hill had two humps. You walked up one quite steep hill and then you would get to the top and it would go slightly down before the second hump would begin. I used to walk to the top of the second hill and sit on a large rock and talk to God. These walks were very precious time between myself and God. It was an average fall day. Grey skies. I left for my walk. I started my trek up the hill. The path I took ran through a very large field. This field was dead. Yellow grass and dirt mostly. But I still liked walking through it because I love fields. Then the most incredible thing happened. As I reached the top of the first hump of the hill I could not believe my eyes. A large section of this dead field had bloomed with small purple flowers! I was in shock. I had just been in this same field the day before for a walk and there were no such flowers that day. I burst into tears. I knew immediately that this was from God.

And that is the way I see the heart of God. He desires to bring us joy. He delights in His children. He sees the desires of our hearts. Even the small things like these purple flowers. He knew that I was disappointed about not being able to go to Ireland. And he made these flowers bloom just for me. What an amazing God! He didn’t have to do that for me. I would have gotten over that small disappointment pretty quickly and forgotten about it. But my God is a romancer. He is a God that searches after and wins over the hearts of His people. To me, this story is always a good reminder of God’s heart for me. It can be so easy to get so wrapped up in trying to be a good Christian and trying to do the right things. We can get so burdened down with guilt and shame. We can make the mistake of seeing God as a cruel taskmaster. It can be so easy to forget that the whole reason why we serve God in the first place is because of His great love and mercy for us. Lets remember who God really is. Let us not think of the statement “God is love” as a cliche. He is love. He IS love.