You don’t need to give a rose a rulebook.
You don’t need to teach a tulip.
You don’t even need to coach a carnation.
Why? Because it’s natural for flowers to be beautiful. It’s wired into their deepest being. No rules, no teaching, no coaching of any kind needed in my garden.
Now, there’s some things flowers need to express their true nature– fertile soil, light, and water. And there’s things that can damage flowers, like storms and diseases. But as long as you give them what they need and protect them from what they don’t, they will do just fine.
What’s more, not only are rules not needed by roses, they actually aren’t even helpful. If a rose plant is bone dry, you pointing out that there’s a rule about how rose flowers are supposed to look isn’t going to help a bit. If a tulip has been pelted down by a hail storm, giving it a lesson on how to stand straight is absolutely useless.
While it’s pretty obvious that flowers don’t have any use for a long list of rules, somehow we think that people do. But honestly, I think that God has designed us a lot like flowers. God has implanted within us a spirit that naturally grows ever more beautiful and that bears precious fruit of light and love. All our spirit really needs is the pure nourishment of God’s light and love and the acceptance of those around us.
But who among us hasn’t been deprived of light and love and acceptance during our life, and who among us hasn’t felt the wounds that others have inflicted to us? No wonder we end up with an inward knowing that we are not all that we were meant to be. And unfortunately, well-meaning people often think the solution is more rules to remind us of who we are supposed to be and more lessons to try and teach us how to grow straight.
Now I’m not saying all rules and teaching and coaching are bad, some are necessary and occasionally even helpful. But all the rules, all the laws, all the books, and all the therapy in the world won’t make us beautiful until we are gently cared for by the light and love of God and His people.
Why not make nourishing the people in your life with light and love your priority today?
Want to know how else you’re like a flower? I wrote a little gift book on that…
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