The Tulip

                Today was a beautiful 71 degrees with a mild breeze and spotty clouds languishing in the spring sky.  I walked through the yard with my grandson playing with his RC Rock Crawler and noticed a tulip which had come up during these last few days of March.  The tulip was bright red, well no, it was more than bright red but a vibrant and electric red while it was dancing to and fro in the later afternoon sunlight.  I vowed I would come back and take this organic jewel back to my bride for her viewing pleasure.  When the opportunity arose, I scooted over to the unsuspecting perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophyte (Wikipedia) and cut it, taking it as a gift for my wife.

          After I presented the trophy of my constant and unending love to her I started thinking about this thing of presenting flowers to one’s own lovely flower.  I reflected about days when I was a very young boy and our family went to visit my grandparents at their cottage.  Behind the cottage there was ample woodland for kids to play in while taking walks with their parents on the old logging trails.  A certain memory flooded my mind’s eye! Traveling back in time I saw the guys, Grandpa, Dad, Me, Chip, and my brother Henry.  We were walking the woods.  Dad, Chip and Grandpa talked, Henry and I moved along with the flow, playing a little but mostly aggravating each other.  We were on the return leg of our excursion and my dad noticed a clump of wild flowers along the trail side.  He stopped, bent over, picked some and said, “Carol (my mom) will love these.” 

          As this memory was transitioning back into the recesses of my stash of cerebral archives a thought jumped out at me. It was not my thought but the Holy Spirit.  He said don’t you remember what Jesus said?  Yes, John recorded these words; “ Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”

         Well of course, there it is!  I do these little romantic things because I have seen my Dad do them. 

          Not everyone has had the privilege of being raised by a Dad who is as great as my Dad was.  Some have had the treasured experience of belonging to a father who was even greater than my Dad, but that is up for debate!

          Whoever’s Dad we are talking about or comparing, no one’s Dad was perfect.  They had flaws, character defects, issues, habits or an irritating sense of humor.  No one’s Dad was like Jesus’ Dad!  And then it hit me like a frozen water balloon to the forehead, Jesus’ Dad is mine too!  He adopted me.  I am a joint heir with Jesus, an adopted son of the Most High!

          {This of course is the place where I decided I better write this down.}

          I see Father God do things in the lives of my family, friends, church family, neighbors and yes even in the lives of people I don’t know!  There are times I even see God move in the lives of the ungodly.  What is my father showing me?  He is showing me how He loves.  He loves unconditionally.  He has an expansive love that allows anyone to receive it.  He shares it without expecting any love in return.  He loves us because He is love and chooses to love. 

Now, I ask myself, am I able to say, “I only do what I see my Father doing.”?  I gave my wife a stunning spring tulip which I believe was because of the example my Dad showed me.  It is the example of sincerity.  He didn’t draw my attention to his actions and say “Zack, now watch me do this!” Absolutely not!  It was an action filled with his love for his wife.  It was automatic.  It was unrehearsed.  It was genuinely filled with the movement of a man in love.

Father God has the same unrehearsed authenticity of affections for his children!  He reaches out to us and implores for us to join Him.  He provides and blesses without the first string attached.  God can’t not love us, He is love! 

My thoughts again rest on the question, “I only do what I see my Father doing?”