pleasance

for eighteen years, until i was thirteen years old, my family lived in a tiny house on hood street. mrs. strand, one of our elderly neighbor ladies - the nice one - loved flowers. her tidy backyard was bordered with flowers on all sides. the irises and peonies that grew along the chain-link fence separating our yard from hers grew through the links of the fence, brightening our yard. mrs. strand always let us pick a few of the peonies that poked through. i remember occasionally wearing a peony to church, pinned to my pretty dress. my mom and i loved those flowers. twelve years ago we packed up and moved - moved away from the tiny house on hood street, away from mrs. strand, away from mrs. strand's peonies.

last may i went to the nursery and found one spindly little peony bush (they are supposed to be planted in the fall) to give to mom for mother's day. by the end of a hot kansas summer, the bush was, by all appearances, dead. so much for that gift, i thought. this weekend, however, i drove back to wichita for a visit, and to my surprise, saw that the bush had sprung back to life this year. it was bigger. it was green, despite the fact that snow had fallen on it the night before. the sight of that little peony bush filled me with pleasure, joy, hope, enthusiasm for the future.

the Lord is indeed good.