Our youngest son set out one morn on a mission – to deliver flowers to people he didn’t know. After carefully picking flowers from our gardens, and tenderly placing them in vessels (a recycled small pickle relish jar and a jelly jar), together, we prayed:
“Lord, please help us to find just the right words to share with just the right people. You know who could use some “sonshine” today, and you know just the right words they need. Use us to bring them happiness today. Amen.”
We sat down together with a Bible, and began reading God’s word, knowing that the words we needed to share would be made obvious to us. Within minutes, I printed the verses and our son carefully taped them to each jar. After adding a little ribbon, the special flowers were ready for delivery. He wanted to deliver the flowers to people in our neighborhood he didn’t know. With a little instruction (for safety), he was off to make his first delivery. It was a quick delivery, too!
Me: “How did it go?”
YS: “Good!” He had a smile that wouldn’t stop!
Me: “Tell me what happened.”
YS: “Well, I went to the door of this house around the corner, and a lady came to the door. I said ‘I made these for you’. And she said ‘Thank you’.”
Me: “How did that make you feel?”
YS: “Very happy!”
Me: “That’s awesome! You know that happy you’re feeling? That’s what joy feels like! That’s how it feels to do things for other people, or give them things, just to make them happy. That’s what it feels like when we are able to share Christ with others. That’s so awesome!”
Our son could hardly wait to head out the door with the next jar. This time, however, he was gone for a much longer time. When he returned, he was still smiling loudly.
Me: “Wow, that took you a little while longer.”
YS: “Yeah. I went to the first house and this lady came to the door, but she said ‘no thank you’, and closed the door fast.”
Me: “Oh, how did that make you feel?
YS: “Kind of bad.”
Me: “Yes, sometimes people don’t understand when you want to give them something. They might think you want them to pay for it, or that you want something from them. I’m sure she didn’t understand.”
YS: “I know.”
Me: “So what did you do next?”
YS: “I went to four more houses, but no body would come to the door.”
Me: “Maybe there wasn’t anybody at home. How did that make you feel?”
YS: “Sort of bad, still.”
Me: “I bet. They might not have been at home, or you know how sometimes we’re at home, but a stranger rings the doorbell and we look out the window do see who it is? Maybe, if they were at home, they didn’t know who you were so they didn’t open the door.”
YS: “Yeah.”
Me: “Well you don’t have any flowers, so you must have given them to somebody.”
YS: “Yep! At the next house, a lady opened the door, and I said ‘I made these for you!’, and she took them and said ‘Thank you!’.
Me: “And that’s why you’re smiling, isn’t it?”
YS: “Yes! Can I go give out more flowers?”
What an awesome thing our youngest son experienced! We were able to share with him how telling others about Christ is just like delivering those flowers. First, we should pray and ask God to lead us to the people he wants us to share with. Then, we should rely on His word when sharing Christ with others. And finally, we should not be discouraged when “the sharing” doesn’t go as we had planned. Even the woman who said “no thanks” will remember the little boy who tried to give her flowers. What she may not have realized at the time was that he left with her something anyway – some “seeds”. Hopefully one day those seeds will be fruitful. And those houses with unopened doors – they taught our son about persistence. Keep on moving forward for Christ. When one door doesn’t open, another one is going to open somewhere else. And the women who received the flowers, they taught our son about the joy that we receive in being obedient in sharing Christ with others. It feels good when we do the right thing, from deep down in the middle. It’s a joy you can’t contain, you just want to keep on sharing!
As if it couldn’t get any better, our son was able to share with some neighborhood children who were all about his age. They saw him walking down the street with the jar full of flowers, and they asked him to play. Our son told them he couldn’t right now, because he was busy giving out flowers. When they asked him why he was doing that, he said, “Because that’s what God wants me to do right now, to make people happy by sharing these with them.”
Have you heard the song, ‘Itty Bitty Seeds’? Well, those were some big honkin’ seeds that our son left by the roadside near those children. THAT is what it’s all about!
the toenail 