I have two large containers of flowers on either side of my garage. Because I was otherwise occupied back in the spring when it was time to plant, my husband chose the plants and colors and then did the work. I appreciated his efforts because it simply took a task off of my plate at the time. He chose a color combination of yellow, orange and lavender for all of our containers, including the large ones by the garage.
As a rule, I’m not good with plants. It turns out you have to water them regularly and pay attention to how much sun versus shade they’re getting. I can crush it for about two or three weeks. Then we go away for a few days or I’m just kind of over it, and they die. This summer was different. Life got in the way of our normal schedule and, well, I was home all summer. Oddly, I continued to water the flowers. They grew. I know, I am as shocked as you are.
That brings me back to my large garage containers. The yellows and the lavenders did just fine together. Somewhere around the middle of August a bright pink flower began to bloom. It stuck out like a sore thumb because it’s color was so bright and vivid in contrast. I paused to look at it one day after finishing up a walk and couldn’t help but think about how that flower stood out because it was different and how people are the same way.
In a container full of bright flowers I probably wouldn’t even notice that one. But it’s uniqueness in this container made it absolutely gorgeous. A couple weeks later I noticed the other container. A very violet purple bloom was looking back at me. I laughed to myself again thinking about how similar that is to people. It’s like the violet flower heard about how pretty the bright pink one was and said, “Oh yeah, I can stand out, too.”
As summer draws to a close, all of those flowers will begin to wither and die. But I’m left with the lesson of the pink and violet flowers. It’s OK to stand out from the crowd. So much beauty can be found when we bloom uniquely as God made us – even if we’re not exactly like the crowd around us. Plus, we never know who else we might inspire. Bloom on friends.
