Yesterday our church staff met at a lovely home for a day of planning.  We talked through the calendar for the coming year and discussed events and programs to populate it.  Folks kicked off sandals at the door and went barefoot through the meeting.  Some sipped coffee in tall clear mugs. We love our church and want it to thrive.  A thread of nervousness ran through the meeting because we worry about the future, as many churches do.  It’s human nature to worry about things even as you plan for them.

All the while we talked, this red flower, whose name I do not know, sat outside on the back porch, silent in the sunlight.  The flower blooms without effort on its part.  Its nature is to bloom.  I want my church to bloom with one-tenth the beauty of this red flower.  The thing about a bloom, though, is that you are helpless to make it happen.  You plant, water and tend, but the bloom is extra.  It’s like grace — unearned and undeserved.