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And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 90:17 NKJV
THIRD BEST
The flowers at the County Fair had only won third place, but how they struck my soul with their brilliant colors. I stood there for a few moments while my five children and husband urged me to hurry on. I thought I had never seen such a joyful riot of yellows and pinks, blues and reds, daffodils, roses, daisies, and varieties I couldn’t name, all there together in the name of Spring and Life. It made me happy just to see them and I wondered why they had only won third place and whose they were.
I walked away and thought I’d forgotten all about the flowers.
PREGNANT
Several months later I was once again confined to bedrest for nine months before the arrival of my sixth child. As in the pregnancies for other children, I tried to manage home and children from the sofa and pray for the little one-to-be, despite the doctor’s bleak statements.
In the midst of it all, the Lord gave me the memory of the flowers — as clear and fresh and bright as they were that day at the fair. The memory of the joy of the flowers helped brighten some dark winter days. The Lord would speak to my heart with verses and with His Love and then, sure enough, the memory of the flowers would flash across my mind and seem as if they were really right there in our little trailer.
The days passed and I was blessed by the Lord with the birth of another healthy son. The story could end there with God’s sustaining love and care—- but the memory of the flowers from the Lord brought me a lot of happiness and I got to thinking how those flowers only won third place.
GOD USES OUR GIFTS
‘Guess we never know the times the Lord will use the gifts we have to help another
or how important those gifts may seem to someone else
or how they will brighten long days
with color and joy in their recall
—–even the gifts that the world thinks of as only —
—- third best.