Flowers and Flan!
Last week, my daughter Joanna turned 20! I can’t believe it; I have no more teenagers
in the house! Time surely does not stand still. It does seem like it was just yesterday that
she was that little girl with bows in her hair, playing with her dolls in the
living room.
Unfortunately, Joanna was sick on her birthday so we
could not fully celebrate with her. Her
throat was so swollen from having “mono” she couldn’t eat cake (or anything
else that felt too difficult to swallow).
Instead, she requested flan—which she not only likes, but was soft
enough for her to get down. So, that
evening I came home at the end of the day with a bouquet of flowers (a dozen
pink roses) and a flan. It was the best
I could do to help her celebrate. I
would have wanted to do more, but due to her illness the best I could do was
flowers and flan!
We all know that, sometimes life interrupts our plans.
There are times when our regular means of celebration have to be put
aside. The dinner plans may have to wait
or the gifts delayed. The things we
thought we would accomplish, the places we thought we would go, the dreams we
hoped to see fulfilled, get pushed to the side because of life’s
interruptions. In the end, we are forced
to improvise, be patient, and most of all trust our lives into God’s hands,
believing that he, our heavenly Father, is able to take care of us and will
always do his best for us.
Jesus tells us not to worry about the things of this
life. He says that God, our “heavenly
Father knows that we need them.” (Matthew 6:32 – NIV) He says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not
sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26 – NIV) And,
elsewhere he says, “If you, then, though
you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will
your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11
– NIV)
We may not have been able to go out for dinner or have a
big party for Joanna’s birthday, but we did the best we could that night with
flowers and flan. In a much greater way,
God will always do his best for us, taking care of us, and helping us through
the challenges of life. He might even
provide for us, some flowers and flan—which in the end is not all that
bad!
Have a great day!
Pastor Tim
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