A God’s Message in a Flower (Guest Post)

On the edge of the road in front of my house, there is a tree.  In certain seasons, the blooming flowers are scattered on the ground and also on the hood of our car that we park under the tree. For years, I had never really paid attention to the flower, until one morning I casually picked it up and watched it closely.

The flower is very small.  The size is only as big as the nail of my thumb.  The shape is similar to orchids but in a mini version. The flower has 4 soft greenish-white petals and 3 bright yellow corolla that decorated with the reddish orange graffiti that twists beautifully, like the ink strokes of a reliable painter.  At the center, there are pistils and green stamens, the tip is round brownish red.  Mini flower appearance is so beautiful.  Regrettably, such beautiful flowers must be scattered on the ground, trampled by people passing by and run over by the wheels of passing vehicles.

This beautiful flower isn’t the kind of expensive flower that people hunt for collections, it isn’t the type of flower that the bride and groom buy to decorate the wedding hall, and not the type of flower arranged in a vase to beautify the banquet table.  Its name isn’t as popular as roses, jasmine, orchids, or other flowers known to many people.  Its size is small, so its beautiful appearance will not be exposed if we don’t carefully.  It’s just a tiny flower that grows, blooms, then falls to the ground, and maybe not many are interested in admiring its beauty or knowing its usefulness.  Then, for what does God dress the flowers in such detail and beauty ?!

Stay Loved even though We don’t Deserve to be Loved

God’s detailed and beautiful work on the small flower shows that God pays attention and expresses His creativity to all of His creations.  There is no creation that is worthless. There are no useless creations.  There is no creation that is created only for vanity, even more so humans for whom Jesus was even willing to sacrifice His life.

While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly.   Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to willingly give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a good man [one who is noble and selfless and worthy] someone might even dare to die.  But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5: 6-8  AMP)

Jesus died for us not because we are godly, righteous people, obeying God’s laws, and have good qualities and good character.  On the contrary, we were people who did not respect God, opposed God, did not even believe in God and were full of evil.  In such an unworthy situation, Jesus loves us.  In fact, God immediately revealed His redemptive plan only shortly after the first man fell into sin: “And I will put enmity (open hostility) between you and the woman, And between your seed (offspring) and her [e]Seed; He shall [fatally] bruise your head, And you shall [only] bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3: 15 AMP)

It was the protevangelium, the first gospel message in the history of mankind, when the Lord gave His promise about the Savior.  At the time the word was spoken, we didn’t yet exist in this world.  There is no guarantee from ourselves, that we will be a good people and appreciate His sacrifice.  In fact, from centuries to centuries many people actually rejected and mocked Him.  God has known all of that from the beginning.  But, God still loves humans and is willing to die for humans.  How great is God’s love for humans, for us.

We don’t need to prove that we are worthy and deserve to be loved.

We have been loved by God from the beginning.

We have been valuable to God from the beginning.

God’s love for us isn’t based on reasons that comes from within us.  God’s love for us comes from God himself.  So, the reason why God loves us is because He loves us!

The problem is that we often judge ourselves based on the values that others attach to us.  We measure ourselves and others based on certain measurements that we or others consider as important things.  These measures can be physical appearance, branded stuff, type of car, position, intelligence, luxury of the house, the amount of balance in the bank, the number of followers on social media, and various other things that invite admiration from others.  We feel superior when we have something we think is higher than someone else’s, and feel inferior when we feel that what we have is lower than someone else’s.  Finally, we try hard so as not to be looked down on by others.  In fact, when we think like that, actually we are looking down on ourselves.

Even worse, we unconsciously apply the same perspective to God.  We think God will love us more if we are more active in ministry, make more offerings, read God’s words more often, pray longer, try to be more obedient and do things that we think will please God.

Yes, of course . . . Serving God, giving offerings, reading God’s word, praying, trying to obey, and doing things that we think will please God are very good.  But, please don’t do all that with a reverse understanding, which is to be loved by God.  Why?  Because on the cross God has poured out all His love, completely.  His love for us is eternal and perfect.  Again, His eternal and perfect love is given to us when we are still sinful and unworthy to be loved!

There is no Reason to Feel Worthless and Unloved

Now, let’s return for a moment to a beautiful little flower that falls scattered on the ground, which I have told at the beginning of this article.  The flower is flower of the Tamarind tree.  The Tamarind Flower is not the main focus of the Tamarind tree.  This is really different from the Rose, Jasmine, Orchid, Lilly, or other types of flowers that are deliberately planted and cultivated to get the flowers.  What people are looking for from the Tamarind tree is the Tamarind fruit, not the flower.  In fact, in my place, Tamarind leaves are more needed by people than Tamarind flowers.  In addition, the size of the Tamarind flower is extremely small compared the natural height of the Tamarind tree can reach 30 meters, so that the flower is barely exposed, not prominent, and even tends to be ignored.  However, God dressed the little flower with detail and beauty.  It is as if God conveyed His message through the flower, that God cares for and loves all of His creation, and each part has been designed with the best design, not carelessly.

The God who created and dressed the small flower is God who said “it was very good” after He finished creating humans in His own image.  That is what God says about us. Therefore . . . however our face looks, our body shape, our weight, our height, no matter how bad our past is, whatever our educational background, no matter how low our social or economic status. . . Don’t be inferior and feel worthless.  Instead, let us not be arrogant because we feel more beautiful, richer, more educated, more respectable, and so on, because we are all the same!!!

We all have THE SAME PAST, a SINNER!

We are REDEEMED by THE SAME BLOOD, the BLOOD OF JESUS.

We accept THE SAME LOVE, that is the LOVE OF THE FATHER who was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son.

We all DON’T DESERVE to be INSECURE or ARROGANT!

All we have to do is be GRATEFUL.

We should not do good to others to be more blessed by God, but let’s do it because we are grateful for the goodness of God that has been given to us and we long to be His witnesses and glorify His name.  Let us not worship and serve God’s work with the aim of being loved more by God, but let’s do it because we love God who first loved us.

The God who created the whole universe is our Father.  He is a good, planned, and responsible Father.  He works in us in detail and perfect. We aren’t a mass product.  Each of us is created unique, beautiful, special.  So, there is no reason for us to feel worthless and unloved!

The Lord is good to all,

And His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created].

All Your works shall give thanks to You and praise You, O Lord,

And Your godly ones will bless You.

(Psalm 145: 9-10 AMP)

 

By: Sella Irene – Beautiful Words

Photo Credit: Google Images ( unsplash.com ) edited with pixlr apps

A SAFE FEELING IN THE FATHER’S LOVE (guest post)

Today, the awareness of believers to be active in ministry is growing up.  In fact, some positions in ministry become something that is desired and proud of.  Whether we realize it or not, all activities in serving God has taken up a lot of time and energy, and is sometimes seen as more important than God himself.  As a result, many servants of God actually lose something more important and valuable. . . something from which the ministry comes out, that is a personal relationship with the God being served!

How important and valuable something is to us is reflected in how we treat it.

The Lord Jesus illustrated this through three parables in Luke chapter 15.  Jesus gave a parable about sheep, drachma and sons, which was important and valuable in the lives of the Jews at that time.  The number of sheep has indicates the amount of wealth and social rank, the drachma is the wage for one day, and the son is the successor to the descendants who continue the family inheritance.  When these things are gone, the owner will try to find it with all his efforts and will rejoice when he finds it back.

In the parable of the son in Luke 15: 11-32, the Lord Jesus tells the story of the father with his two sons, the younger and the older.  The younger asked for his inheritance, sold it all, then left and squandered his money to waste.  When he fell into poverty and hunger, he remembered his father and decided to go home.  His father, who had been waiting for him, immediately received him back and restored his position unconditionally, even holding a party to celebrate him.  The older was angry because he felt he had spent years to serve his father, work hard and tried to obey every command of his father, but was not heeded.  While his younger brother who acted poorly was welcomed in a special way.

Looking at verses 1 and 2, there are two groups of listeners in this parable.  The first group are tax collectors and sinners who usually come to hear Jesus’ teachings.  The second group are the Pharisees and the scribes.  The Younger is a depiction of tax collectors and sinners, while the older is a description of the scribes and Pharisees, those who feel they have done many things for God, feel they have done the right thing.

These two groups have in common, that is, they are not related to the father.  Naturally, if the younger loses relations with his father.  But what about the older?  How can a person who always stays in his father’s house, obeys orders and works hard in his father’s years, lose intimacy with his father?  It was seen from his reaction when he saw what his father had done to welcome his brother’s return.

“The older brother became ANGRY and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me even A YOUNG GOAT so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when THIS SON OF YOURS who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill THE FATTENED CALF for him!’  (Luke 15: 28-30 NIV)

His first reaction was ANGRY.  He didn’t rejoice together with his father, even calling the younger as ‘THIS SON OF YOURS’, not ‘my brother’.  And, pay attention to the comparison of the words he uses, namely ‘THE FATTENED CALF’, which the father slaughtered for his younger brother, compared to ‘A YOUNG GOAT’ which according to him has never been given by his father to him, even though he has worked hard.  Implied envy and disappointment in his sentences.

Today, the older are people who know many of God’s words, are strict with various religious rules, and may be someone who is active in the ministry in the church, but unconsciously they have lost their personal relationship with the Father.  When we are easily triggered by anger, easily disappointed with God, disappointed with friends in the ministry, jealous of the blessings received by others, begin to measure what the Father should be given by what we have done in ministries, and lose love for others… maybe without us knowing we have lost our personal relationship with Heavenly Father.  Maybe we are the older who lost in the Father’s house.  Now is the time to return the position of our hearts to their proper place, which is in the presence of the Heavenly Father.

A ministry should come from the relationship between the child and Heavenly Father and be filled with the love of Christ.

A service that isn’t sourced from a relationship with Heavenly Father will only be an activity and busyness that will increasingly dry our spirituality.  When this happens, we will begin to calculate our efforts in God’s field and become disappointed when God doesn’t give us what we want.

THE PERFECT LOVE

Back to the parable of the prodigal son.  Does the Father love the younger more than the older, so the Father has a party to celebrate the return of the younger?  Or does the Father love the older because he is an obedient son who serves faithfully in the Father’s field?  The answer to both questions is NO.  The Father’s love is perfect love, not because of what we do or what we don’t, but because He loves us, as we are, even when we are sinners, so that He is willing to give His most precious possession, His Only Son, Jesus Christ.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5: 8 NIV) 

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8: 32 NIV)

We are people who are loved by the Father.  Have “a safe feeling” in the Father’s love.  We must not think that we must “do this and not do that” so that we are more loved by the Father or that the Father will grant our prayers.  Instead, we should not assume that if our prayers are answered, it is because we have served, fasted, did good, and so on.  If the Father blesses or if our prayers are answered, it is because the Father loves us.  And… If the Father doesn’t fulfill our prayers, it’s also because the Father loves us.

Look at the younger.  When the younger back home, the father immediately restores his rights and status as sons and heirs, without the younger having to prove to the father by his actions in advance that he has repented.  There is no guarantee that he will no longer do shameful things to his father.  That is the love of the Father, that is the perfect love, the unconditional love.

A REFLECTION OF LIFE

The younger and the older are both losing relations and intimacy with the Father.  The younger who is a depiction of sinners who have not been saved, or it can also be people who have received salvation but choose to leave God for the sake of the world.  The older who is a depiction of God’s children who actively works in God’s fields and knows many of God’s words, but loses fellowship with the Father and does not know the character of the Father.  What does it mean all the toil in ministry when losing intimacy with the Heavenly Father!

Enthusiastic and active in the ministry is good, but it is really a shame if the busyness in serving God’s work makes us not have enough time to build a personal relationship with God.  We must view building a relationship with Heavenly Father as far more valuable than serving His work, because ministry should come out of intimacy with the Father and come from the love of the Father.

The Father has shown us how valuable and serious the restoration of relationship between Himself and humans is, so that the Father is willing to give Jesus to atone for sins, so that human can fellowship with Him.  Let us respond to the seriousness of the Father with the same attitude of heart, which is to place a personal relationship with Him above all else.  Let’s look at the relationship with the Heavenly Father as something valuable, something that we look forward to, we look for, we maintain, and become our joy.

When we are confronted with all kinds of problems and conditions in this world, let us always remember the high price paid by the Father to restore His relationship with us.  When we want to make a decision in life, let the main factor in our consideration be whether that decision will result in the deterioration of our personal relationship with our Father.  Let’s be Christians and servants of Christ who have a deep personal relationship with the Heavenly Father, know Him, and always feel ‘safe’ in the Father’s love that has been proven in the work of Christ, so that by His grace and by His strength, we can say:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Roma 8: 35, 38-39)

 

AMEN

 

By: Sella Irene – Beautiful Words

Photo Credit: Google Images ( unsplash.com ) edited with pixlr apps