In buying a bunch of flowers for a friend, I had planned to buy a lovely open bunch showing off their colour and vibrancy. But I didnt see anything I liked. They all looked a bit scrappy, so I grabbed a bunch that somehow appealed to me in their greenery.
As I was leaving the florist, it was only then that it occurred
to me that I’d bought a bunch of flowers that I had no idea
what they would look like when they blossomed.
NOT what I had planned AT all!
I softened my disappointment with the thought:
“Oh well, that’s the element of surprise!”
But then my next thought was:
“But for me, I dont like surprises. I’d rather know.”
Then I realised this:
Life can be just like this bunch of flowers!
- We plan for it to be one thing, then one day we realise we didn’t get what we planned for.
- Maybe what we see looks a bit scrappy, compared to what we hoped or planned for.
- But it’s in the not getting what we planned for, that the ‘element of surprise’ can come through.
- There is no room for the ‘element of surprise’ in getting what we planned, because we planned it.
While driving to visit my friend with that bunch of ‘surprise potential’ sitting on my front passenger seat, a song came on the radio: ‘Take Courage’ by Kristene Dimarco.
The words I heard first, and loudest were:
“He’s in the waiting”
“He’s never failing”
And so I believe that because of the words above, I need to apply the words below:
“Take courage my heart”
“Stay steadfast my soul”
and
“Hold onto your hope”
Because surely as that bunch of flowers are not failing to open, but only AFTER a time of waiting they will open up to reveal what was all along being developed within: the resulting ‘element of surprise.’
I’m encouraged by the words that continue on:
“As your triumph unfolds . . .”
As the ‘element of surprise’ is revealed:
in that bunch of flowers,
and in life itself,
we will see it was all coming to pass.
but only after a time, because it’s
“in the waiting.”
helenpowellpens 