Flow.

Summer Poppies, Elise Ehrenholz, ©2025.

It's interesting to me how something as simple as a flower can bring us happiness. Just the other day my Mum was looking at a picture of this very pot and it brought her so much happiness. I could see how she started to glow from the inside out, her face translating the joy within her. We talked about them and I remarked on how fragile the poppies were, but also about how when they bob along with the wind they look even prettier. What makes them even more beautiful when they sway? Is it because we recognize their authenticity? It would be unnatural if they were ram rod straight sticking up out of the soil. I think we would be skeptical of them. We might even exclaim that these flowers cannot be real. But the real? Such delicate details. The simplest of flowers invite us to take a closer look. Even the shadow of the miniature golden yellow stamens cast an intriguing shadow. No wonder artists since the beginning of time have been inspired by them. The petals themselves look more fragile than tissue paper, like they would crumble at even the threat of rain, yet it is not so, for they are tougher than one would think. Just the other day we had a horrendous rain storm that lasted at least an hour and there was so much water it was even with the sidewalks. And the flowers? The storm had come straight at them. I had actually had moved them to a sheltered spot ahead of time in case of such an event, but they took the full brunt of the wind and rain that day because the storm came from an unexpected direction and I wasn't home to rescue them. When I arrived later that day and heard from the neighbours about the afternoon, I was surprised to see the plants still standing at all. They must've been absolutely pummeled. Despite being vulnerable though in their very composition, these flowers withstood a fierce storm that was not even predicted. How we are like them. 

Have I ever told you about this dream? It was a long time ago, decades. I'm sitting at the end of a small rectangular wooden table. The colours in the room are dark and drab, grey, almost blue. There is a small empty wooden bowl sitting in the middle of the table. I'm alone except there's this man sitting to my right. All I see is his forearm. I don't know how, but I realise that he is Jesus, and I put my forehead down on his arm and just start to weep, like to the depths of your soul kind of crying. And He says to me, "It will be alright. "End of dream. I wake up and I am also weeping. It was a profound dream, and yet I didn't understand what its purpose was. I was in my early twenties at the time and nothing was spectacularly wrong. And yet, this dream was for a purpose, it was for later. It was for the later me, the more grown up me, the grown up me that would face trials, the grown up me that would face character shaping moments. I don't believe in keeping a stiff upper lip at all times, so I will tell you this people, in all honesty, there have been times that have tried my very soul. There have been times when I have felt absolutely crushed. The enemy of our soul excels at doing that.

I'm feeling tired today, in all the ways. Maybe you are too. Perhaps that's why I'm being so candid, so that you know that you are not alone whatever you are going through, and that you can make it. I feel like God wants to remind you today that He knows how fragile you are, and that He's not constrained by it. He is capable of keeping us even when we are weak. He is the kindest master gardener that ever was, tending His flowers with absolute precision. Nothing is ever out of His sight lines, nothing ever out of His hand, nothing ever out of His care. He knows all, sees all, and He knows how much we can take. He's made us in such a way that when storms roar through that we will not completely topple over, that we will not utterly fall down. Know it's okay to rest, knowing that resting isn't quitting, that it's actually part of the struggle forward. You have to rest or you'll never make it. Remember this though as you wade through the deep water, you become mighty through Jesus. He is the One who transforms us. There is no other way.

I'm giving you some homework today all my poppies out there, especially those of you who have faced many storms. There is something about literally shutting the door on the world, so go to a quiet place and shut the door. Put your favourite Jesus music on repeat, and stretch your arms up to the ceiling imagining it's an ever-expanding clear summer sky. It's what I'm going to do. It will connect us with the One who dreamed that beautiful expanse up in the first place. It will remind us of who we were designed to be as children of God. We are ones who outlast storms, ones who are destined to touch the vaults of Heaven. 

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed - always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." - 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 (NKJV). 

"As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him, for He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him" - Psalm 103:13-17a (NKJV). 

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." - John 10:27, 28 (NKJV).

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”- Romans 10:9-10

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” – John 6:29

Keep stretching your hands out to God dear hearts. Pour your heart out like a waterfall to Him. The road has surely been rough, but we are mighty in Him. Praise you Jesus. You did it all.