A Rose, A Lily and The Flower Press Of Life!!
Over the last week a lot of my time was spent wondering and thinking about things. Wondering why we go through the things in life that we do and how much more can we take.
“From my own fieldwork, I know the flowers in the design grew in a garden or field. I once wondered if the weight of the press would crush the flowers I tucked between the layers of cardboard and newsprint. The cuttings would lie in the press for days and weeks, and I would check and rotate the layers. Then I discovered that the press didn’t destroy the flowers after all. Amazingly, it brought out their fine details and deepened some of the colors, just as those in the artist’s arrangement. “
“We are like these flowers. Left alone growing wild, we would eventually wither and die. Time spent within life’s press transforms us. Our Creator and Master Artist uses the trials that seem certain to crush to produce in us an internal and eternal beauty far beyond all comparison. “
As I read this it brought back memories of a wedding gift that my former wife and I received from a friend that we went to school with. It was a drawing done on crush velvet of a red rose and a lily and they were intertwined together, symbolizing being one and the person who gave this drawing to us, reminded us also that in order for the rose and the lily to give off a fragrance, that they would be crushed and from that would come a fragrance, of the Christ within that would draw others to want to know more abot the Lord.
As I read Jan’s introduction to the Flowerpress, I began to weap, to let go and let God to continue to work in my inner most being. To cut away even more things that were hindering my relationship with Him. To remind me that in spite of all that has gone on in my life, in my families life and in my former wife’s life, that the Father is in total control and nothing happens that He is not aware of and that which He has purposed in our lives will be accomplished if we yield to Him.
That even in the midst of the darkest nights of the soul, when all within, says no way will we survive this, yet, we will be transformed, conformed, and changed. That we are indeed in the Master Artist’s hands and when He is finished, we will reflect the internal work that has been done, His handiwork.
And as Jan Kern further shared in that introduction: “When you find you are in one of life’s presses, listen for God’s whisper of hope.” “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17 NAS
Jan, thank you for what you shared in your introduction to the Flower Press.
Till later my friends,
Paul