Spring on sale for $1.49

I dashed to Trader Joe's grocery store yesterday to pick up a few items that I needed in a hurry.  And there, by each register, was a basket of closed-up, rather limp looking stems with a sign that declared:  "Daffodils $1.49.  Just add water."

As it was barely 20 degrees outside and I had just brushed an additional half-inch of snow off the front walk, I was hungry for anything cheerful.   The cashier put one bunch of  limp stems in my cloth bag next to the other grocery items.

At home, I dropped the flowers into a simple glass of water and went about my day.  And then this morning, I was greeted by a bouquet of kindness on this cold and cloudy 18 degree day.

The sight both made me smile and wonder.  In my Bible reading this morning, I read about how Jesus saw the funeral procession of a young man, his weeping single mom following behind.  The text does not say that Jesus felt sorry for her.  It says, "And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her..." (Luke 7.13).  Jesus then touched the coffin and raised the young man from the dead.  Compassion is not a feeling, but an action.

God calls us to be sensitive to the needs of others, indeed to love them, not just to feel sorry for them or to be nice, but to exhibit compassion, grace, and love to those all around us.  I do not have the power to raise someone from the dead, but I can be kind in this cold hard world.  My words can be like those daffodils this morning.

God will surround you with opportunities to be kind today, some occasions that are obvious, and others a little harder to do.

But it may, it just may, touch someone deeper than you can realize,
that they may know that there is yet hope,
love,
and grace in this world
and that would be God Himself.

A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

                         Proverbs 25.11