God Reaching Out to Us Through...Flowers

Missy here. After reading Linda’s beautiful story from yesterday, it reminded me of a story about faith through one of the hardest times in my life. When I suffered a miscarriage.

I wish I could say that my faith sustained me, and that I held tight to God and His comfort. But I didn’t. I was devastated and couldn’t even pray. I was angry with God. And I thought what I’m sure most of us have thought at one time or another: God, how could You let this happen?

I truly had a crisis of faith. And when it was over (or I thought it was over), I had decided that God really wasn’t interested in being involved in our lives. I decided that God was way far out there, had set the Earth to spinning, and would take us home to heaven whenever we died. But that in the in-between time, we were on our own.

Friends tried to comfort me. One good friend bought me this gorgeous basket of mixed plants. It was mostly green plants, ivy and such. But there was also a beautiful African violet as well. It was obviously a very expensive arrangement, and I remember feeling bad because I knew she couldn’t afford it. But she said she wanted to bring me something to cheer me up. And it did it bit. Of course, I’m hard on plants, and violets have never liked me. After a few weeks, the blooms were gone, and it became a nice basket of green plants.

I don’t have time in this post to tell all the amazing ways God worked on me. But one major one was that I attended a Walk to Emmaus. And on that retreat, I found out a woman had been praying for me by name ever since I first registered—before the miscarriage. And she always burned a candle when she prayed for me. She was going to give it to me on the retreat, but my candle had burned away. It was so touching to know someone had been praying for me even before the pain of losing the baby. Even through the time when I was refusing to pray.

On that same retreat, my table leader was 8 months pregnant. Oh, talk about pain! When I walked up and saw her, I was so bitter. I wanted to crawl away and cry. But when I eventually shared with her about my loss, she wept. She said she almost hadn’t attended the retreat but felt strongly that someone needed her there, and she went anyway. She shared with me some personal things that helped me to heal. And by the time I got home from that retreat, I was in a much better place. My faith was restored, and I knew God had been with me all along, even through the dark times.

Jump ahead two and a half years. After seeing an infertility specialist, we finally got pregnant again. And this time, I delivered a beautiful baby boy, Tyler. I was so happy. But I have to admit, there was a little twinge of sadness that hung over the joyous occasion. It hurt to think of my other babies (I actually had a second miscarriage a few months after the first one). But I was very thankful as I took my son home from the hospital.

The next morning, I got up and walked through the dining room. And I couldn’t believe what I saw. For the first time in two and a half years, the violet had bloomed! I stopped in my tracks and cried my eyes out. I just knew it was a gift from God, an assurance that my other babies were with Him. It was like they (and God) were sending a welcome gift for Tyler. And a gift for me.

God is good. And He gives us what we need. He cares for us even in times when we don’t think He’s near. He touches us through other people. And He touches us by the simple blooming of a flower.