Friends
Is there sunshine where you are today? Is there a smile on your face? If not, perhaps it’s time to brighten up and find that smile. For we are blessed with another day to rise and shine. Let’s make the most of this precious gift!
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But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:13 – NIV
There’s nothing like a hot pinK geranium to put a smile on my face. I keep two of them on my front porch each summer, one on each of the tables that skirt my glider. The ones I potted last summer were absolutely gorgeous so I decided to see if I could keep them through the winter.
The front storage room off my carport has a large window set high against the fourteen foot ceiling. The funny thing is that I had never actually seen the inside of that window until last year. That’s because the previous owner, Mr. Cooper, had boarded it up with plywood, and we had never bothered to remove it. After all, it was just a storage room. We didn’t really need a window.
Then Covid happened, and we were bored. So we cleaned out the storage rooms and purged several decades’ worth of long since abandoned stuff. It was cathartic! It was freeing. It opened up new possibilities, like a real potting shed. Looking up at the boarded up window, I thought, “Hmmm…maybe even a little greenhouse!”
Like any good wife would do, I put my husband to work! In a flash, the old board was removed and glorious light filled the room. It was almost magical! I reorganized the room with my potting materials and left the top shelves of the shelving unit free for, you guessed it, my geraniums!
When the December chill rolled in, my geraniums found their winter hiding spot. Since the shelf they resided on is quite high, the plants ended up sitting just below the old picture window. I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the plants with my watering can once a week, but the maneuver worked. So I wished them well and shut the door on the outside cold temperatures. The room isn’t heated, but it turned out that the afternoon sun streaming through the old window warmed the room quite well.
All winter long, I made a weekly visit to my geraniums, bringing my watering can for refreshments. I could see that the leaves nearest me still looked green and alive, but I never bothered to climb the ladder to try and see the rest of the plants.
Not until April, that is. The weather was getting warmer, and I decided to pull my pet plants out of their hiding spot. Eric helped me lift them down, the pots being quite heavy and breakable. When he handed me the first one, I couldn’t believe it. The side I couldn’t see was humongous, the lush green leaves the size of my palm! The second one was even larger. Wow! There was only a couple of dead leaves on either plant. They looked fantastic!
When I placed them on my side tables on the porch, the foliage spilled out all over the table. There was barely enough room left for me to place my hot tea on the corner.
I could hardly believe my eyes. They even had new buds starting to come out. So what did I do? I gave them some Miracle-Gro Bloom, of course, and waited for my hot pink blooms.
Obviously, my experiment worked. What made it such a success? It wasn’t anything unusual about the water. It wasn’t really all that warm in there so that couldn’t account for my results either.
The secret to my success was the light. The plants thrived on that bright afternoon sunshine streaming through the window.
People do too. They need light. They need “the light of the world” to shine on them and bring their suffering souls to new life.
Light brings growth. Light brings life. Light dispels the darkness, and oh, how we need a reprieve from the darkness of this world. Jesus is the light that can break through the darkness.
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12b, NIV). Just as Jesus told His disciples, He tells us,“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b, NKJV).
Do you feel like you are withering in the dark today? It doesn’t have to be that way. Turn to the Light and find new hope. Absorb His marvelous light and find the abundant life that is waiting for all who would believe.
This summer, my geraniums have thrived in the bright morning sunlight on my front porch. Regardless of the challenging circumstances that may surround us, you and I can thrive too when we turn to the light, the light that is Jesus Christ.
Friends, we woke up this morning. We are alive today. We can waste that gift on worry or selfishness, or we can turn toward His Light and thrive.
I plan on taking my cue from my happy pink blooms. I’m gonna smile in the sunshine. I’ve got some thriving to do. How about you?
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The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 – NKJV
PRAYER
O Glorious God, You are the gracious giver of light and life. Thank You for the gift of Jesus who came to give us the abundant life. Because of Your unfailing love and unending grace, we know an unimaginable hope. Thank You, Lord! To You, be all glory, honor, majesty and praise!
In the Shining Name of Jesus, we pray,
Amen
Blessings,
Anita
-APS 8/23/2021
Faith Beyond Sight 