God Sent Me Flowers

It was another wintry day. My preschool-aged daughter and I were grocery shopping. We had rushed into the store from the car to stay as warm as possible. Snow swirling and temperatures dropping, it promised to be another frigid, gray day.

Upon entering, I immediately noticed the beautiful display of African Violets. All in full bloom in varying shades of pink, purple and blue. It was at that moment that I started to pray for a violet.

My husband goes the extra mile to help clean the house and helps out in many other ways throughout the week. But he’s not usually one to buy flowers.

We had recently moved to a new state in the middle of the winter so had given away all the houseplants to friends, and now my kitchen was devoid of friendly flowers. I wanted a violet very much!

I thought about the violets all week and even hinted at it to my husband. Then I came outright and told him that I’d really like a violet, to no avail. He had actually looked for them at the store but they were all gone! Somehow this wasn’t the answer I had expected from God! I felt that He did want me to have those little flowers as a reminder of His great love for us!

Money for Flowers

The next week I had to return to the grocery store. I looked when I first came into the store and sure enough the display was gone. Soon I was ready to check out. I had prayed in the store that if God wanted me to have a violet, that I would have enough money after getting all the things on my list to buy one. There must be a violet somewhere in the store! I had also shared with my daughter that I was praying that we’d have enough money to buy a violet after we got our groceries. She too had seen the pretty flowers the week before.

Now these violets cost less than $2 and certainly wouldn’t break the bank. But I had determined to only use the money in my wallet and not to charge things on my credit card, so I felt that God would honor that, if it was His will. I had felt a bit silly bothering God with a request for a little flower. Nevertheless, I still wanted a flower to brighten up my kitchen in the winter. So I continued to pray as we filled our cart.

We checked out and I was amazed at the total because the checker gave me $2.25 back! I was so excited! We pulled out of the checkout lane with our full cart of bagged groceries. I told my daughter, with tears in my eyes, that Jesus wanted us to have a flower because He made sure we would have enough money for a violet!

Looking For Violets

Now we started looking for a store employee that we could ask where to find the violets. The first employee told us that the violets were all gone. They wouldn’t have any more flowers until the garden center was opened again in the spring. They were sorry.

I chose not to accept that answer because I had the money in my pocket to buy a violet – a direct answer, I felt, to my request from God! The second employee told us they had been moved back by the greeting cards!

My daughter and I quickly pushed the cart over to the greeting card section to a huge beautiful selection of African Violets! They were gorgeous purple, blue, pink and white flowers. My heart was pounding as I thought about this answer to prayer. God is such a Master at creating beauty even on a wintry day! These flowers were so beautiful!

Answering Our Prayers

My daughter carefully picked out the perfect plant as we admired the vivid colors and diversity. We solemnly paid for our purchase and carefully protected the plant from the cold as we dashed out from the store to the car. My daughter held the answered prayer on her lap all the way home and carefully carried it into the kitchen when we got home.

As I unloaded my groceries at home, I stared again at the beautiful deep purple flowers and thought, amazed, that I serve a God who is interested in a little $2 flower to make me happy! How much more is He ever willing to answer our prayers when they include life changing issues, decisions or just wisdom for the day! So often I forget to even ask Him for His guidance and help. Then of course, I miss His answers since I wasn’t looking for them in the first place.

Karen Carlton writes from the Pacific Northwest.

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