Our children are grown, I let my RN license expire after mom died over ten years ago {I've been out of practice too long to go back to nursing, anyway}, and most days I'm physically unable to be of much use to anyone. Worst of all, some mornings it takes hours for me to be able to move around, so Louis tells Pastor Eric maybe he shouldn't count on us as much, and I feel lower than a snake's belly.
When Paul David Tripp asks, What is your reason for getting up in the morning? I laugh and think good question.
Why do I get up in the morning if no one needs me or can count on me for anything? I know why, I really do, but the question still haunts me.
Gas is expensive, so Louis mows the pasture less often this summer, letting grass grow taller and wildflowers wilder, and he tells me one morning about a new flower under the pines. It's worth the effort to investigate, I determine - having not seen anything new in weeks.
I find this new flower growing four feet tall from the ground to the tip of a thin stalk with a green spikey cluster of small, almost-black orchid flowers that are difficult to see spiraled around the tip of the curled-over head.
A few days later, I venture out to check on this new-to-me flower and discover dozens of white, spidery orchids growing wild all around me. We've lived here on Pollywog Creek for almost twenty-five years and we've never seen these orchids. They can't be seen from the house or the road - only right where they are planted and growing.
And it occurs to me - that over-used cliché - these wild orchids are blooming right where they are planted. Uncultivated, they grow and bloom where God placed them and where only He might see, and that's why they get up in the morning.
So...what is your reason for getting up in the morning?Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.1 Corinthians 7:17 ESV
{Photos - thanks to Prem Subrahmanyam - a homeschooling dad of 15 children - who helped me identify the orchids.}
