 |
| Photo by Laurie Collett 2026 |
On the day before Easter, my husband Richard and I left the
house early in the morning, as we needed to prepare for an Egg Hunt that afternoon
and Resurrection Sunday service the next day. Both were a new adventure for us
in our new church and had awakened feelings of excitement, anticipation, and gratitude,
along with some stress and anxiety about how these would turn out.
After all, we were new at church planting and
administration, and the Egg Hunt had just been planned a few days earlier when
our new Children’s Ministry leader announced she would like to organize it even
on such short notice. But we had faith that God’s strength would be made
perfect in our weakness and that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians
12:9). Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), but
with Him, all things are possible! (Matthew 19:26).
As Richard locked the door and I began walking toward the
car, I stopped in my tracks, crying “Wow!” in amazement. In a small garden bed
along the walkway, occupied mostly by greenery planted by our home’s previous resident,
a stunningly beautiful flower had appeared from nowhere.
“That wasn’t here last night when I came home,” Richard
said, scratching his head in bewilderment.
This gorgeous creation was not just a blossom that had
drifted in on the wind, but a fully grown lily plant, rooted in the soil, its
firm, green stalk over two feet tall. A single, trumpet-shaped flower had
opened fully, in sunrise tones of pink and pale coral with hints of lavender.
Over the next few days, three buds also bloomed, with the four bell-shaped
lilies forming the shape of a cross!
I am always blessed when God speaks to us through His creation (Psalm 19:1), as He did here! The colors and cross-shape
of the plant that mysteriously appeared reminded me of the cross against the
sunrise background that is featured on our New Life Bible Church Tampa website.
It was as if God was reassuring us that He is with us, leading the way (Proverbs
3:6; 16:9) on every step of this journey of faith as we obey Him
in opening a new church!
As we prepared the grounds for the Egg Hunt, we were
delighted to see two orange butterflies, also like those pictured on the
website, hovering over the area, as if God were consecrating this space for His
purpose!
The Egg Hunt and Resurrection Sunday service proved that God
answered our prayers exceeding abundantly beyond what we could imagine or hope
for (Ephesians 3:20), not only in the events' attendance, but in the faithful
presentation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection through His Word, from
the pulpit, in song, and in the children’s lessons (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
One three-year old at the Egg Hunt listened in awe as the events of Holy Week
were explained, and then asked, “You mean they killed Jesus?”
So where did the lily come from? We realized that unlike a
seed that could be carried from anywhere by a bird, this plant must have grown
from a large bulb. Flower bulbs do reproduce and spread in the ground, but
there was no similar plant in any of our neighbors’ yards, nor were their gardens close enough for such spread to have occurred.
Finally I remembered that about 7 years ago, on Valentine’s Day, Richard had given me an amaryllis bulb. He planted it outside and assured
me that it would soon look like the lovely picture on the carton. “Cut flowers die
quickly, so I thought this would be better,” he explained.
I remember being a little disgruntled at the time, thinking
that other women got beautiful, fragrant bouquets, and all I got was a dirty,
ugly bulb that looked like a hybrid of a potato and an onion!
But God knew better, and His Spirit must have led Richard
to the perfect gift that would provide exactly the reassurance, confirmation,
and beauty we would need seven years later, exactly when He knew we would need
it! There was indeed a time to plant, and a time to enjoy that which was
planted, even though we would never dream of plucking it up! (Ecclesiastes
3:1-2).
What an apt metaphor He gave us of how the years of
preparation, experience and training in various churches, not always pleasant
or fulfilling, would one day culminate in His new creation of a church! (2
Corinthians 5:17). He knew His plan for us since before the beginning
of time (Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10), even though we
had no inkling of it until He was ready to reveal it to us in His perfect
timing! (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
As He transforms a drab, lifeless bulb into a glorious
symbol of His resurrection, so He can take our trials, struggles, heartache and
disappointments and fashion them according to His new purpose. But like the
bulb, we must die to self (1 Corinthians 15:31) before His Spirit
can transform our heart and let it blossom into a vessel suited for His use!
Praise God that He creates beauty from ashes, planting us
as trees of righteousness, to His glory! (Isaiah 61:3), Praise
God that He makes everything beautiful in its time! (Ecclesiastes 3:11). May we always yield to His perfect will and wait on His perfect timing!
Copyright 2026 Laurie Collett
