The Gerber Daisy

    My Gerber Daisy is beautiful this summer. Right now it has three lovely blooms in the foliage is dark green plentiful and healthy. It hasn’t always been that way. 

    I had this plant last summer as well. It was nothing extraordinary.  There weren’t many blossoms but it was still alive.  When wintertime came, I brought my daisy inside and even though it looked pretty bedraggled, I nourished it with water and sunshine from the window.

    When spring arrived, my plants that had wintered inside were excitedly brought outside to enjoy the warm rays of the sun.  In our area, frosts can be frequent up until early summer, so I kept an eye on the forecast, dutifully bringing my plants inside  when it looked like frost was possible.  

    And then it happened.  For whatever reason, I didn’t get all of my plants inside and the frost came one night.  The Gerber Daisy was one that was left outside.  In the morning, it’s broad leaves turned dark green and wilted, I knew it had frosted.  I was saddened that one of my favorite plants had apparently succumbed to the cold temps.  

    Instead of throwing it away, however, I removed the dead foliage and continued to give it water and sunshine, just in case there was life left in those roots.  Time passed, and sure enough, leaves began to sprout, and before I knew it, the plant was MUCH healthier than it had ever been!  Now there are blossoms, amid the green leaves, which are abundant and healthy green. 

The plant has never been so beautiful.  Just a couple of months ago, I thought it had probably died, yet, here we are today, flourishing and beautiful.  I didn't expect this plant to become so beautiful!  Think what would have been missed had I not continued to nourish it, despite it's seemingly bleak future.

    Isn’t it this way as well in our own lives?  We become lost, our spirits are all but dead.  What good could even come from that?  No joy, no tangible contribution to others.  What hope is there?

    There is ALWAYS hope.  We have a loving God who created us from His great LOVE.  He is our Hope.  In Him alone will we find Life.  We are already good enough!  We are already loved!  Given the chance each one of us can be whole, healthy, and blossom like the daisy.  Look to God - not the chaos, the hurt, the ugliness of this world.  

    We are REDEEMED!  God's grace and bountiful life is a free gift - we only need to reach out and accept it.

Isaiah 43:18-19

“Remember not the former things,

    nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

    and rivers in the desert.

Ephesians 1:7

In Him we have redemption through His blood,

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.