Summer Storm, Summer Flowers

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” – Henri Matisse

A surprisingly warm wind rushes past, sliding thin droplets of rain across my face. It’s 5 a.m. and I’m leaning over our deck watching the remnants of tropical storm Calvin pass by in the distance. Today’s forecast: rain and potential flooding. Yet, this storm feels mild compares to the ones we had throughout the fall and winter, storms where I’d wake up to the boom of thunder and torrential rain beating our aluminum roof. On the contrary, this rain feels more like a heavy mist on a humid day, just barely enough water to tip our area out of drought conditions. Of course, things could change. For now, I’ll take this mild summer storm ushering in our yearly June through November Hurricane season.

As we near the end of July and the start of the school year, I cannot understand how a whole month (nearly two) of summer has passed by so quickly. I blinked and school is just about to start. I closed my eyes and my three kids grew leaps and bounds, two can read, and the youngest can now climb just as high as the older kids. How did this happen?

In the corner of our tiny kitchen, our tea kettle beckons me to pour my cup. To focus, to practice my morning ritual of coffee or tea (or both). To steady myself in the present, where I’m most needed – and most useful – and most able to give and receive and pour into my kids. Before they grow up, which they’re doing at an alarming rate.

Weeks back, I picked up these beautiful flowers from Ashley at Petaloomfloral Co. mostly because I love summer dahlias (they bring me inordinate joy) and partly because I needed decor for a cake order: a three-layer Hawaiian jewel cake made with guava sponge layers sandwiching a lilikoi (passionfruit) sponge layer also guava jam and white chocolate cream cheese frosting. These flowers served both purposes well. (See photos.)

In other news, I spent 2.5 hours at the dentist yesterday getting a back tooth crowned. This is my second (ahem, third crown in the past 7 months) since I cracked my two back teeth when I was pregnant with Rosie some 5 years ago and now they’ve both progressed to the painful part where the tooth has to get drilled down and then a crown set to protect it. My first crown didn’t hold (sadly) and so the dentist had to go back in and drill again and repeat the whole process (icky) a few months back. Praise God that’s over I hope! Now, before the school year starts, I decided it was time to proactively deal with the pain in the other tooth and do the work of getting it fixed up. Fast forward through that 2.5 hour procedure, and I find myself in quite a bit of pain today. My back is aching (both the lower and upper) and I can barely open my mouth the whole way from pain in the surgical area. Mostly my back is so bothersome. Ever since the steroid injections wore off a few weeks ago, I’ve been struggling through my ‘new normal’ of intermittent bouts of pain (sometimes daily), praying that this exercise-related injury will finally heal. God, please heal me.

1 Peter’s message this morning really hit me, and I’d love to share it with you.

1 Peter 1:3-9 (Emphasis mine):

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice,though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Words that stand out to me here are grief. Faith. Living Hope. God’s Power. Inheritance. Rejoice. Suffering for a Little While. Praise. Glory. Honor. More Faith. More Joy.

Praise Jesus. I can come to the Lord with all my pain and struggle and know that He is doing good, all this He will work out for His good. Nothing is wasted in God’s Kingdom because He is refining me as I surrender my struggle, my heartache, my pain to the God of universe. Praise God.

As I type, I hear the pitter patter of one room over, waking. Off I go. Praying over you today as you read this, may God dwell in your heart and mind and speak His Hope and Love and Faith over you in whatever storm you are walking through.

xx