gomommyblogger: Ropes, Bells, and Lilacs in Vases

There is something about a Sunday which fills my head with words and sentences, desperately spilling out into storytelling. This is why I blog. The overflow needs to go somewhere, and this has become a welcoming space.

I have never been much for flowers. They are pretty and the smell of Honeysuckle brings back exciting memories of childhood, but the cost of a bouquet is so steep and I have an inherent will to thrift. So bouquets are a luxury I never splurge for.
Do you remember the time Big Strong Man bought me a bouquet and it ended up in a tantrum-induced mess, in my (homemade) guacamole and all over the floor?...yeah, you can recap that experience here.

I am also not a nature lover.
I know.
I know.
Shame on me.

Dirt and insects and snake sightings and sun spots have me pretty much never wanting to leave the comforts of home- even a messy home is heaps upon heaps superior to the outdoors.
Camping.
Fishing.
These are not what I consider to be fun.
At all.

So I laugh and sigh and say with forged remorse, "I'm just not a nature lover. It -sadly-is not in me".
And I am A-OK with that.

Funny thing, though. All over Pinterest and in the vlogs I obsess over while washing dishes (and when I should be sleeping), I see these bouquets of flowers and I am going ga-ga over them. Which. is. so. not. me.

But, without warning, it is me. So me.

And I have become a Hobby Lobby floral department stalker, looking every time I go (weekly) and fixating on how real the roses look (I didn't even think I liked roses!). Constantly I am looking to add more arrangements to our home: on the mantle, my vanity, the center of our dinner table, the side table, widow sill, bathroom sink. And I have been spending actual time looking into which flowers I desire desperately to have spilling over in our flower boxes (something white and dainty, perhaps a Lobelia) and painting our front garden (Tulips, for certain, Sunflowers, and Lilacs, as well as some other lovelies which have poked themselves up and out without our assistance- evidence of a past gardener or the Master Gardener at work).

Yesterday Big Strong Man returned from work with a hand-made bundle of Lilacs: purple, both dark and light, and white. Completely gorgeous. Like, I never want them to wilt and I awoke this morning eager to see them, gorgeous. And they smell lovely, too.
Today is Mother's Day, and I have returned from church two Carnations (white and fuchsia) richer than when I left. In the past I remember faintly the flowers gifted me on Mother's Day making it as far as our car before being trampled on, pulled-apart, and left for dead. Evidence of young, crazy sons and a passive mom who may-or-may-not have uttered something along the lines of, "it's fine, I really don't care". Today, they stand, side by side, in a vase in my window sill because -all of a sudden- I care!

A part of me wants to bemoan another part of me- the part of me wishing to make this spiritual. Does it all need to have a religious connection?? But his post was birthed from the latter part- the part seeing this as an invitation from God. To open my eyes and nose: to see and smell. To touch and enjoy. To see beauty where I have so long dismissed possibility and actuality. To taste and see that the Lord is good. -Psalm 34:8

In the Temple where God's Spirit resided, prior to Jesus' death and the curtain tearing in half, the High Priest alone was allowed to enter the space. Although this was a great honor, it was also terrifying. Because no other was allowed beyond the curtain, the High Priest would have a rope tied around his ankle, and on it, bells. If the bells stopped ringing, the High Priest stopped moving. If he stopped moving it was possible he was dead. If he was dead, he wasn't walking himself back out, so the rope was used to drag his limp body back to the other side of the curtain.
The curtain splitting represents Jesus making God's presence available to all. (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45; Hebrews 10: 19-22)
In the Jewish culture, this was HUGE. Never in their lives and history has God been so accessible. So close.

Living this side of the cross and curtain,

it is way too easy to forget that we have a privilege

so many others have never dreamed of.

And yet I think we are so inclined to forget -or neglect- this privilege.

I know I am.
This is why the flowers are such a big deal to me. It is easy to forget that there is beauty all around. It is easy to forget how gracious and near the Lord of Heaven and Earth; Abba Father; the Alpha and the Omega, really is.
I don't want to forget. I resist forgetting, so all of these reminders do good for me. Do good for my heart.

Do you have reminders which bring back a quick and gentle nudge to see God's presence in the everyday? In the ordinary? If you do not already, I encourage you to look around. To try looking with new eyes- eyes of anticipation and expectation.

In Emily P. Freeman's book, Simply Tuesday, she writes, "Help us to know your presence in ways we may have otherwise overlooked if not for our inability to see".