If you’ve read my post The Intimate Love of God, you’ll know how much I love flowers. To me, they have a kind of magical quality, a beauty that speaks to the beauty of heaven. So maybe it won’t surprise you too much to know that autumn is not my favorite season.
This week, however, something amazing happened–the lilac bushes in the area bloomed again. Typically only lasting a few weeks in spring, lilacs have one of my favorite scents. Upon walking outside in early October, I can suddenly smell the springlike, floral scent that the tiny clusters of light purple blooms are now wafting through the cool autumn air. For me, it’s a kind of small miracle.
Flowers typically signal spring, a time for singing in creation, “for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land” (Song of Solomon 2:11-12). To see spring flowers now, when creation is starting to show signs of fading for the colder months, was such a surprising encouragement for me, whose favorite season is spring (surprised?). It reminded me that God sees us and knows exactly what will delight us, and He uses that to speak to us uniquely.
Have you ever been surprised by an image or a symbol with special meaning to you and felt God nudging you? Sometimes He uses these simple everyday things to give us encouragement to keep going, or a moment of relief in a time of stress. If you haven’t, or it’s been a while, remember He is always speaking to you, and He never stops. He won’t ever stop trying to get your attention. Sometimes all we need is a reminder to notice His nudge in our hearts.
Let this encourage you to watch and listen for God. Amid the noise around us, God knows what means the most to us and speaks to us in a language that only you share with Him. He can use not only images and symbols but emotions, Scriptures, and other people’s words too. It is up to us to notice. It is up to us to appreciate how God relates to us and to grow in our relationship with Him.
So let this be a reminder to stop and literally smell the lilacs, in whatever form they take for you in your own life. God is waiting to delight you in His deep, specific knowledge of and love for you.
“All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name” (Psalm 66:4).
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