Violets, Part 2

I don't know where all the meanings behind flowers originated.  For example, roses are supposed to symbolize love, and even the colors of roses have significance.  A quick Google search for flower meanings will probably tell you more than you want to know about the attributes that have somehow been assigned to flowers.  And yet, God uses these "mundane" things to touch and teach each of us, personally and intimately.  As I mentioned last week, violets have always been my favorite flower.  Over the course of my teenage years and early adulthood, their qualities came to portray spiritual truths to me.  These little flowers on slender stems are not as fragile as they seem.  They can endure drastic changes in temperature, blooming among both sleet and snow.  Too much heat withers them, but a cool breeze can revive them.  They are tremendous multipliers, sending roots out all around and creating a virtual nest of roots and leaves and blossoms (many gardeners consider them pests).  I'm sure you can see how easily spiritual lessons can be drawn from the characteristics of the humble violet.

But it was later in my life I learned that violets stand for faithfulness.  And this information, I believe, came to me at a point in time that could only be a message from God to me.  You see, I have been unfaithful to God in various degrees all through the course of this journey.  I have done things I knew were wrong.  I have purposely not done things that I knew God wanted me to do.  I have run away, like Jonah.  I have been like a stupid sheep, and and wandered astray.  I find myself worrying or fretting, when I have seen God's hand working and have no need to think so negatively.  In a thousand ways (at least!), I am unfaithful and unworthy.

But God never lets go.  Because I turned to Him and gave Him my life, He now holds me....forever.  And His faithfulness never ends.  So my affection for violets has now become a continual reminder of who I am, and whose I am.  And therefore, they also encourage me to be faithful, as He is faithful.  I am His, a promise renewed every day!

Lamentations 3:21-23
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.  It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.