Persistent Pansies

My containers filled with pansies are teaching me a lesson about persistence this spring. Like so many things in life, they started healthy and full of promise. I remember when we planted them last fall when there was a nip in the air and the days were getting shorter. Since those hardy plants are known for being tough, I just knew we would be rewarded with purple, yellow, and blue flowers all winter long. I didn't count on the Polar Vortex and nights of single digit temperatures, followed by inches of snow and ice. My frozen and battered flowers stayed hunkered down in their containers and produced only a few pitiful small blossoms. 

“Those early bloomers look dead,” I told my late bloomer husband. I just knew we would have to dig up the plants and redo the flower containers if we hoped for any spring color. My pansies had other ideas and must have adopted the motto: “Hope spring eternal in the human breast.” (Alexander Pope–An Essay on Man)  As soon as the first few days of 60 degree sunshine warmed those hibernating plants, they raised their heads and started to grow again. Now I am awarded with an abundance of colorful flowers with happy faces that provide color and joy to my front porch and back deck.

 

The persistence of my pansies is not just about the flowers, but a picture of life. Our days start out so full of hope and promise, but seem to be sabotaged by difficulties and challenges that knock us down for a while. Broken relationships, chronic illnesses, job loss, financial difficulties, prodigal children, and family deaths intrude and we find it difficult to raise our heads and bloom.

The expectation of our time is for a quick and easy fix to our latest dilemma. Chris Tiegreen in one of his devotional books wrote that we live in a “microwave world.”  Today we could add we live in a “Google world” that provides us fast answers to everything.  (Did you know the Internet celebrated its 25^th anniversary this week? How did we ever live without it?)  The challenge of our day is to learn persistence and perseverance in the midst of difficulties with no fast fix.  The Bible admonishes us in Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Good advice for me to follow and share with my fellow readers. 

I really like the way comedian Jim Carrey put it:,“Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.”