Just a few days after mowing, our backyard transforms into a wonderland of wishes.
My youngest calls me outside and hands me a dandelion and tells me to make a wish. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and whispers that little girl wish that sends the seeds flying.
“Now you do it! Make your wish!”
I stand there, holding my breath, and just as I begin to exhale, I realize I don’t know what to wish for.
Sometime this past year, my desperate longing for something more became satisfied. I had all I needed because God was sending the flair right into any circumstance. It didn’t matter where I was because He was there.
Even in the weeds of suffering, illness, and disappointment, there was always some flair.
So what’s left to wish for? I’m holding the weed in my hand and asking God what His wish for my life is.
I remember that God’s name and His renown are the desire of my heart. What does it mean to wish that your life radiates with the power and presence of God? What does it mean to wish for a life that brings the most honor and glory to God–that His name would be made great through your life?
These are serious wishes. These wishes include sacrifice and dying to self. These wishes invoke a sort of hope and intention that invites God to work in my life no matter what the cost. It’s a surrender that sends my life flying out into the unknown.
Is this a wish I’m ready to make? I exhale everything out across the landscape. I don’t know where these seeds will land, but land they will. This is my life that I’m scattering out. It never belonged to me anyway.
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Journal: Can I surrender like this?
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Heather this was a beautiful post today. I have just posted on my blog why I write what I do…it was God's idea…not mine. Long ago and far away in 1972, my new husband and I attended a gathering in Dallas, Texas called “Explo '72” put on by Campus Crusade for Christ. Billy Graham was one of the speakers in the Cotton Bowl. We had traveled from Ohio to attend this conference as new believers in Jesus Christ. It was there one evening that Billy Graham challenged us to count the cost of following God “no matter what”. Both my husband and I stood and accepted that call that evening. It has been quite a journey since then, but one we have never regretted. We have both sought to make our lives count for Him these nearly 40 years that we have been married. We know our destination but there is so much joy in the journey. Thank you for this blessing today!
i wish my neighbor would quit blowing dandelions into my yard! 🙂
Seriously, when we quit blowing and making wishes is the day we've given up.
I dont ever want to get there.
Lovely.
Thank you for the comment, Barbara! I loved hearing about your decision to radically follow Jesus–no matter what!
You know I love this image, Heather – and the photos. But the image – dandelion seeds of vision floating off to who knows where. And we let them go – trusting God to send them where He wants them to go – where He knows the seeds will take root – where He and not me will be known.
“How to Write with Flair” arrived yesterday and I was thrilled. I showed it to Emily. She wants to CLEP writing (she is an excellent writer) and I suggested that when she returns from Burundi this summer that she and I work through your book together before she takes the exam. (Don't tell her I'm going to do it by myself first – ASAP!)
Patricia, I'm so glad that this blog spoke to you!! And I pray that How to Write with Flair offers help and inspiration!
My first visit to Flair – and I love the images, dancing in your kitchen, spicing your life and writing with flair and finding beauty in hoary dandelions. Have you seen Dewitt Jones' dvd, “Celebrate What's Right with the World” ? I think it was made to pair with this post.
Writing a blog at 70 finds me straining to remember my school grammar – and I find myself making up punctuation and tense! Is that flair?