In the spring of 1978 I lived with my family in Vancouver, Canada in a house that we rented from my uncle who lived next door. The reason I remember the date so specifically is that the previous month I had made the decision that would change the rest of my life. I had decided to become a Born Again Christian. Even though at the time I had no idea what that was or even those terms.
One day, as I was leaving for school, I noticed a strange thing on our driveway. It looked like an onion with a green shoot coming out of it. I brought it inside and asked my mother what it was and she told me it was a daffodil bulb that was attempting to grow. Then she asked me where I found it. When I told her, she wondered out loud if there were any more. It got me excited. I wanted to know because we didn't have any daffodils in our lovely, big yard.
Mom suggested I go next door and ask my aunt, because her parents had owned and lived in the house previously. It happened by "coincidence" that when I went next door my aunt's mother was actually there visiting and confirmed that they had planted several daffodil bulbs all along the fence. But it was many many years ago and apparently the grass had encroached and covered them up. I asked my uncle if it would be okay if I pulled back the grass and attempt to let the daffodils grow again. With everyone's blessing, that Saturday I went outside with an old tablespoon and spent the entire day working very hard to pull back some very stubborn grass.
I thought I would have to wait quite a while for the daffodil bulbs to sprout but before even another week had passed I already saw some little green shoots struggling to come out of the dirt.
Once those little shoots made it to the surface they started growing very rapidly and in less than a month we had an entire bed of daffodils along our fence line.
Now you must be wondering how in the world that is an analogy and what is it an analogy of. But I imagine it this way. How awful it must have been for those annual flowers to be stuck under the grass year after year after year. And as wonderful as the grass was, it was blocking them from ever reaching the sunlight and becoming the flowers they were supposed to be. I suppose it happened so gradually that they didn't even realize that soon they wouldn't be able to reach the surface or the light at all.
But one little bulb somehow made it to the surface to alert someone of their existence and predicament. After I pulled back the grass I thought I might have to dig up the bulbs and plant them nearer to the surface. But I had just enough wisdom to leave them and let them work their own way up to the light, even though it meant a big struggle to pass up through a lot of dirt. But once they felt the warmth of the sunlight again, they rapidly started to grow and eventually bloom. The whole row of them we're beautiful and magnificent and rarely did anyone walk by our fence without stopping and looking at them to appreciate their simple majesty.
We live our lives many times stuck in deep dirt, unable to reach the warmth of the sun and sometimes unable to even reach for help. Year after year buried in darkness longing for a rescue, some hope or even just someone to take notice of our suffering. But it only takes one determined little person to come out and get help. Then everyone can be rescued. The big wisdom is knowing how much help to give and when to just leave them alone and let them find their own path to the surface, where they fulfill the purpose they were created for.
I'm not going to explain the analogy any more than that, because I'm sure it will mean different things to different people. God will explain it to each one of us in our own situations, problems and viewpoints. But I felt compelled to share it with you. I hope you get something out of it. I certainly have. But it did take me 41 years to do it.😒 (insert joke here.)
Thanks for stopping in.
With love, Laura-Lee
PS I find it interesting that of all the flowers, daffodils resemble the sun the most.
