I hope you are able to get out with safety and enjoy the beauty which is ours in the mountains of SW Virginia.  It’s a joy to live where the beauty of birds, flowers, trees, and mountains is as rampant as it is here.  We participate in that beauty ourselves.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us, though, of a challenging truth:

A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I say, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

Because the breath of the Lord bows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

But the word of our God endures forever.”  (Isaiah 40:6-8, NIV)

Our time on this earth is short indeed, and our imperfections cannot long be denied.  To say, though, that we are imperfect is not to say that we are without beauty.  Flawed beauty is beauty nevertheless.  All the more reason to bloom while we can.  We still have time to bloom and time to enjoy the beauty of others.  Individuals bring beauty as individuals, but anyone who has seen a mass of flowers can appreciate that beauty as well.

So, bloom!  Make God happy!

–Pastor Bill–

Attached, too, is a day lily photographed along the Virginia Creeper Trail.  While it is a solitary flower, it includes a variety of colors, shapes, and textures.  Within its being is a community of beauties.