Roses

Today, I received flowers from one of my BESTEST girlfriends and sister in Christ. The occasion, you ask? She gave me a surprise in the name of a birthday party. No, it's not my birthday; that was a couple of months ago. But she made me feel like it was something more than an annual festivity... like *I* was something more.

You know how we all want to feel "special" - with attributes of "one of a kind-ness"? It almost goes against the grain of the concept of taking self out of the equation. You know, of living a life of service. But the undeniable result of service *is* making the receiver feel special, unique, wanted, valued, one of a kind, and most of all; loved. Are we causing the other person to stumble by catering to that "need"? Hmm. Now, I didn't really ask that because I didn't know, or that I thought you didn't know. I just wanted to segway into the fact that Christ gave His life to us in service to his Father to make us feel... special, unique, wanted, valued, one of a kind, and most of all; loved. There are a lot of other attributes that can add to that list. That's a severely truncated one. But if you want to find out what some of those other ones might be, just take a trip through the Bible. He reveals new and different ones to me all the time.

"I am the rose of Sharon and lily of the valley." Sister Dana sent me Jesus today in the form of multicolored, fragrant flowers. In her service of thoughtfulness, I am reaping the harvest of heaven's prelude; a mere glimpse of glory to come. I am "special" there as one of my Heavenly Father's children.

Thank you, Dana, for reminding me of these things.