a cup for flowers

i was at a friend’s house last friday getting caught up on each other’s lives. her kids were outside playing and her daughter came in asking if she could get a cup. we asked what it was for and she said she wanted to collect flowers in it. so my friend got up to get one for her. and her daughter’s face widened and brightened into a ginormous smile, she jumped up and down, clapped her hands and said “a cup for flowers – yay!!” when it was placed into her hands she ran out the door, giddy with delight.

my friend and i looked at each other and together said, “wow”.

a cup for flowers. that is all her daughter wanted. and she started to celebrate right in front of us when she realized she would get it.

we talked about that for a while because it really moved us. we forget to celebrate the little things. we’ve lost our delight over the simple. and all it took was a child, ferocious at play, to remind us of it.

i want to be a person who isn’t so busy, or isn’t so consumed with business, or who doesn’t have the time to stop and smell the cup of flowers. i want to catch the excitement over something i’ve chalked up to mundane. i want to feel alive over the seemingly insignificant things of God’s creation.

i have a feeling that when we truly put God first, the lens He provides for us to look through captures this stuff. our hearts are more in tune with the pleasures that are all around us that we’ve lost sight of.

i want to fill up a cup with flowers and marvel at how fun it is and how pretty they are and how something so simple can be so delightful. and i want to remember how God has a purpose for even those little flowers, and how much more of a purpose He may have for those of us He calls His own children.

a cup for flowers – yay!!

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