Planting Flowers in the Rain

These have been challenging days. John's mind continues to decline and it seems that I am recognizing less and less of the man who captured my heart thirteen years ago.  I had a trusted respite caregiver here last Tuesday and so I drove away from the house to run a few errands and visit a dear friend in the hospital. As I turned the corner from my street, I saw something that arrested my attention and I was so blessed by the sight that I pulled over to the side of the road and sat silently to watch. There was a strong, steady rain falling and a man was out at the edge of his yard planting flowers! "I've never seen a man planting flowers in the rain," I marveled to myself.  I have reflected over this picture for a few days, asking myself why it touched me so deeply. Was it the tender heart of a man who would so lovingly, carefully plant flowers even as he himself got drenched?  Was it the care he was taking as he placed each stem in the ground and filled in good soil all around? 

I'm not sure. I just knew it was speaking to my heart. My days are so still, so hushed now, that I hope I am learning again to listen to the Voice of the Master who speaks to me through the small things. I opened my email this morning and went straight to the prophetic devotional sent out each day by Marsha Burns (Faith Tabernacle of Kremmling). She wrote, "Breakthrough for you will come as a trickling stream instead of a roaring river. Your proverbial mantra will be : slow and steady, slow and steady. Take life as it comes; you cannot rush it. There are lessons to be learned that will be of great benefit in moving forward."

Slow and steady, slow and steady! This does indeed describe my days now. The days are all the same as I get John's meals and medications and find him good worship music to bless his soul. I watch him go through the stacks and stacks of old family photographs over and over, one day after another.  A trickling stream instead of a roaring river.  "There are lessons to be learned that will be of great benefit in moving forward," Marsha writes. It makes me think about the swirling chaos, the angry unrest, the violence of wars and the upheaval of the weather around the globe, and ponder how very sheltered and peaceful I feel in my little yellow house with the porch swing and the vegetable garden. Is this the lesson that will be of great benefit? Is Father teaching me to be like His Son in the boat amidst the great storm?  Like the man planting flowers in the rain?

I think this will be of great benefit to us as we learn to quiet our hearts and minds and keep our gaze upon Eternity. Slow and steady, a trickling stream...Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (take life as it comes!) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we FIX OUR EYES NOT ON WHAT IS SEEN, BUT WHAT IS UNSEEN. FOR WHAT IS SEEN IS TEMPORARY, BUT WHAT IS UNSEEN IS ETERNAL. ( 2 Cor. 4:16-18)