The Cross and Flowers

Kelsie talked one of our neighbors into giving her one of the flowers from her flower bed. As she plucked it and handed it to my little girl, I thought about all that had gone into this moment for the flower. A bulb, with no appearance like that of a flower, was strategically buried. It had a cost, which our gardening neighbor paid. Slowly this early spring, the flower blossomed, despite cold and snow. Only then did a little girl notice it and want it.

I am amazed how many sermon illustrations God has built into His creation. This story of a flower can be directly tied to the Cross. A high price paid and a burial precede anything of beauty. Once the beauty is seen, everything else is overshadowed and seemingly forgotten. I think of the things in my life that work this same way. How many dreams are dead and buried? What whole parts of my life resemble a bulb that looks to an uneducated eye like it has been thrown away "outside the city?" A Christian's eye is trained to see the bulb for the flower it is. We see the cross - which is only about death - as our source of abundant and eternal life, and rightly so. The Cross is the bulb of an empty tomb. "It is finished" must come first. Only then do we have "He is Risen!"