Flowers of Grace

There are many flower stands along the roads of Kenya and the flowers are more than beautiful. So, last weekend Emily and I stopped to buy some for a friend’s birthday. We were amazed at the beauty and happy that we had money left over after we had bought such a big bundle.

As we were walking back to the car I noticed a girl around my age who was sitting quietly and seemed as though she was weary and tired. I felt like the Lord was telling me to hand her the money I had left over and talk to her about Him, but I disobediently kept on my journey and went on my own way. Needless to say, I beat myself up for the decision I had made the whole car ride home…

Later on this week I was doing the Asbury Journal and was answering the question, “Where has Satan attempted to ‘stop’ you recently?” based on 1 Thess. 2:18, when Paul, Silas, and Timothy are trying to get to the Thessalonians so they can speak with them and encourage them, but “Satan stopped (them).”

As I was thinking back on my weeks here I immediately thought of the precious girl at the flower stand and could not get her off of my heart. So, I decided to confess my disobedience to Emily and told her what had happened, when Emily realized which girl I was talking about, she too confessed that she had felt like the Lord was telling her to talk to the girl as well.

Once we realized how disobedient we were and how we had given into the enemy, we knew we had to try to go back to the same flower stand and find the girl.

Fortunately, we were able to get to the stand this afternoon. But to our dismay she was not there when we arrived. So, we asked around and her co-worker, Edward, informed us that she was just on her lunch break and would return very soon.

As, we were waiting for her to return we decided to look for some flowers and asked Edward what the girl’s name was… And, of course, her name was Grace…

Grace returned to the flower stand and we were able to talk to her. We also were able to give her an envelope (that she opened after we left) with some money that she greatly needed. 

Although we went to bless them, we were by far, NOT the ones that were doing the blessing. We left the flower shop with bundles and bundles of flowers that were given to us without them even knowing why were we there.

In the midst of our disobedience, the Lord “Flowered us with Grace” in so many ways.

So, how has Satan attempted to "stop" you lately? Ask the Lord to reveal it and then let the Lord shower (or flower) you with His grace…