Lent Day 15: Determination

Lent Day 15: Determination

Yesterday was a really good day with my elder sitting job. When my little lady emerged from her bedroom, she asked if I had seen the flowers. Flowers? It was too early for the crocus to be up, and too cold. I told her I hadn’t and she instructed me to go look out the bedroom window. I complied and what I saw was beautiful! All along the hedge was a row of white flowers. She called them snowdrops and she was quite proud of what she had planted.

I quickly finished preparing her breakfast and got her going on that and then I went out to pick a handful of precious little flowers. I felt like such a kid with a fistful of posies. As I was gathering them, I reached for one that was, to me, more special than all the rest. Pulling the stem, I noticed that the flower had poked its way not only through the dirt to make its entrance into this world, but it had worked itself right through a dead leaf—the leaf was still around the stem.

I took the flowers and the leaf in to show my little lady. She lit up when she saw them. I showed her how determined the one little flower had been. She agreed that it was special. I put them in a little jelly jar and she arranged them and then got on with her breakfast.

I went over to my usual seat and pondered the leaf for a little bit. What was its message for me today? I thought about determination. Is it a biblical principle? I thought of the story of Zacheus who would not allow his stature to keep him from seeing Jesus. I thought about the woman with the issue of blood who knew if she could just touch the fringe of his garment she would be healed. I thought of Jacob wrestling with the angel. I thought about how when Jesus talked to his disciples about producing fruit in their lives, they were to produce much fruit. I thought about many times it tells us to “make every effort” in our faith and to not grow weary. I thought about how it is reported that Jesus “set his face” to Jerusalem and Paul was determined to go to Rome.

Yes, I think determination is a biblical principle. So, what have I determined and where am I determined? How about you? God placed in the heart of that little seed the need to sprout and no leaf was going to deter it. It carried its resolve as a sign of its determination. I don’t know what you have to “go through” to grow, but I do know that the process can be difficult and often wearisome. Remember that others will be watching to see you poke through. Oh, how it will bless them…and God!