Promptings

Here is a word picture that I received while driving recently. It came from dwelling on my relationship with two people I love very much, but have had difficulty loving well lately.

The beautiful Christian who has not experienced, or does not understand, the fullness of God's grace is like a deliciously fragrant flower that keeps closed up tight because it is ashamed of its colors deep inside and afraid of being judged by those who kneel down for a closer look.

The Christian's spiritual fruit is the fragrance that draws your attention. The outer shell is perfect in form and color; clearly the creator spared no attention to detail when designing His child, and the child has taken care not to deform its petals with the poisons of the world.

As you admire this flower you long to know more; you crave to have a deeper, more intimate experience with this lover of Christ. You will never truly know or understand this flower until you see the rich colors deep within. But the flower is full of fear and remains shut tight. If you force the petals open, you will only damage the flower.

You stare perplexed as you try to determine the safest way to know the flower more deeply. The flower, in turn, feels your stares and is sure that you are judging it already. It becomes self conscious. Perhaps one of its petals has browned on the tip. Perhaps its efforts to remain a stunning picture of religious perfection have been sullied somehow. The flower silently wishes you would just take your lofty ideals of love and intimacy and go away!

Suddenly you feel a great sadness well up within you. This flower is beautiful and fragrant, but what keeps it shut tight? You begin to guess at the colors inside. Perhaps the colors are deep hues of blue as if the flower has experienced a great sadness of its own. Perhaps the colors are shades of black like unresolved anger or violet like the bruises of punishment or persecution. It seems you will never know.

You shed many tears of grief as you ask the Lord what you should do. You don't want to ignore the longing inside, for that wouldn't be living in truth. And now that you sense there is a great sadness that needs ministering to, the sadness of not knowing the fullness of God's grace, you couldn't possibly walk away from this beautiful Christian. You must stay and be there for him until...

Silently, on the wind, the Holy Spirit enters the garden with an aroma unlike any you have ever know, like silk on the air. He has heard your cries and has come to attend to the delicate flower. "I've tried everything," you weep, "but it just won't budge." The Holy Spirit surrounds the flower. The flower shudders because it is certain that God's judgement is imminent. It must have missed some very important theology, or failed to serve others well, or just isn't beautiful enough on the inside. Then the Holy Spirit breathes warmth onto the flower and you feel it too. You feel - safe. The flower falls into a deep sleep. Then the Holy Spirit begins to sing. He sings a love song to the flower while gently stroking the flowers petals. He sings a love song to the Christian and the touch of his hand on her face is so gentle and soothing.

Without fear the flower begins to open. Without fear the Christian slowly lets down his guard. The colors inside give off a dazzling glow. There are blues and blacks and violets. But there is also red, orange, green all glittering like they have been dusted with gold.

"What is it you see?" the Holy Spirit asks.

"I see beauty," you reply.

"That is what We see as well."

"Is this flower perfect?" I very much want to know because it just so beautiful.

"No. There is no one perfect except for Us."

The flower, the Christian, finally finds its voice. "I know I'm not perfect. I've tried so hard. I'm sorry I've failed." The Holy Spirit whispers gently. "Your sins are forgiven and your failures are washed clean. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, God the Father sees what I see, a beautiful flower. A beautiful Christian. And we love you more than you will ever comprehend."

The flower, the Christian, finally understands. Fear is gone and her loved ones are finally let in to see the deeper parts. And through the love of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the dark blues and blacks and violets that represent the great sadness in the flower's soul begin to brighten until only traces of darkness remain.

This is my prayer for my two loved ones. That the ministry of the Holy Spirit breath the truth of grace into their lives, so that they can in turn learn to love without fear of judgement and so that we can begin to experience one another with the deepest of intimacy.