How have You been Listening to the Flowers?
Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field." Let's meditate together regarding what flowers teach us about God and ourselves. Let the Flowers be Your Theologians.
God has honored us with another opportunity to spend extended time at the place we know as Potter’s Inn, Divide, Colorado.1 (The campus name changed in 2025)
Our plan: Spend time with God and each other, walk, worship, and pray the Prayer Trail, and hike the mountains.
In September 2018, my wife and I made a pilgrimage here for a 5-day retreat called the Soul Care Experience. God amazed me with a transformative encounter at Potter’s Inn, and I have not been the same. (Click here for that story.)
Now we are back for 2 weeks, and as of this moment, we have the place to ourselves. It is glorious! The Aspen are near full color. The Father is meeting us at every turn. The silence, stillness, and solitude are captivating. We’re nestled on the north shoulder of Pikes Peak at 9,000 ft. elevation. The Peak is gloriously towering above us today!
A defining characteristic here is the Prayer Trail. It contains 12 stations of prayer beginning with Preparation, Contemplation, The Ascent, The Cleft, Confession, Adoration, etc. A printed guide with scripture, questions for contemplation, and instructions for “holy listening” at each station is provided.
Sprinkled along the trail are other signs that spark curiosity, inviting us to pause and reflect. Let the Flowers be the Theologians caught my attention the first day.
During this sabbatical, I’ll post insights about what God said to me on the Prayer Trail. This will be different from my usual writing, not as polished or organized, a little raw, and definitely vulnerable. God has spoken deeply to me on the Prayer Trail. I pray that He will reveal Himself to you, too, as we walk it together.
Please note: The insights are listed as God shared them with me. I’ve expanded them as I’ve “noticed and wondered” about the truths gleaned from the flowers. (All of the pictures below are from here, except one.)
Let the Flowers be Our Theologians
There’s something about flowers. Their delicateness, their beauty, their vulnerability. They don’t “do” anything. They don’t “strive” in any way. Flowers just “be”.
What did I learn from the Flowers?
In noticing and wondering about the flowers, I learned truths about God, myself, love, and eternity. What will you learn? Please pay attention as God speaks to your heart.
What did Jesus say?
Matthew 6:28-30 – Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? (All quotes from the CSB)
God loves Beauty
The beauty of the flowers surpasses all the splendor of Solomon. The wild flowers here are small and delicate. They grow in soil where you would think nothing would grow, but grow they do, they are beautiful, and they declare the glory of God.
Our love of beauty is part of being God’s Beloveds and image-bearers of God. God Himself is beautiful, and He makes everything beautiful in its time (Eccl. 3:11). God commanded Israel regarding worship to have beauty in worship. The garments for Aaron and the other priests were made “for glory and for beauty” (Ex. 28:2).
When God created the earth, including you and me, he said it was “very good.” This planet is beautiful, not just the flowers. The first astronauts, on trips to the moon, responded in awe and wonder at our gorgeous blue/green planet. This is not just the “third rock from the sun” as one sitcom mused. This is the dwelling place where our beautiful God is in a personal relationship with those He’s called unto Himself.
We are God’s masterpiece. We are beautiful in His eyes.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
We are God’s masterpiece, which means that you and I are His special creation and His work of art, designed to live in a way that reflects His glory.
God cares
Be grateful for God’s care.
Jesus said, “If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith?” Matthew 6:30
If God adorns the flowers with grace and glory greater than Solomon, what will He do for me. He cares. He acts, He is not silent. The hymn writer nailed it: No one ever cared for me like Jesus; There’s no other friend so kind as He. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me; O how much He cared for me.
God provides for the flowers
What does the flower need to fulfil its purpose? Soil, light, water, and the Father’s care. The flower never goes to the store. It never buys gas or pays a bill. The flower rests in the Father’s love.
Can I rest in God’s care for me?
2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
I may have to go to the store or buy gas, but I can rest in the glorious truth that God has given me everything required for life and godliness!
Every day matters – Every moment matters
Live life to the fullest. These flowers were “here today and gone tomorrow.” Some flowers live only a few days, but they fulfill their purpose exactly as God created them to do. What if they lived only one day? Here today and gone tomorrow . . . they glorified God and reflected His beauty on their “one” day.
From the flowers, I learn: Make every moment, every breath, count to the fullest.
Be present. Listen. Receive. Give. Bless. Love in this precious, present moment. Do this because this exact moment will never return.
Contentment just to “be”
Flowers are content to be cared for, provided for, and loved. There is no striving to perform. No striving to gain approval.
I am content to just “Be”
God calls me to: Be grateful for the privilege to just be. To be his child, His beloved. To be loved and to love others out of the overflow. I am called to be still with him.
Like the flowers, I will Rest in God’s love
In His love, I will be grateful for my relationship with God. No toiling, no guilt, no shame, just contentment to be in a relationship with him.
Trust God to clothe you. Don’t be, “O you of little faith.” Growth comes by being in constant, abiding union with God (John 15), not by striving or toiling.
Every flower is glorious – Every child of God is Glorious and Beloved
Let’s just sit with that for a moment. As God’s child, I am glorious and beloved . . . What does that stir up in you?
Picture God right now - what look is on His face right now? I believe He’s looking at you with a “gaze of love.” Have you learned to receive the loving gaze of God?
Just like every flower tells a story . . .
I must trust the story that God is building. I will trust the slow work of God. He is still at work and I can trust Him.
6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
God made each of us unique and beautiful
Each one of us is God’s masterpiece. Even thistles have a unique beauty
What do you think of when you see a thistle flower? Does that remind you of the Fall? Or does it remind you that God has redeemed us after the Fall? Let’s choose the second!
I think of God’s kindness in Genesis 3. He asked questions of curiosity, longing, and restoration. Where are you? Who are you listening to besides me? (Who told you…?) Where has your hunger taken you? (Have you eaten…?)
Then God stunningly demonstrated His kindness by taking one of his precious animals and making clothes for them. I believe Genesis is about redemption more than the Fall.
Let the Flowers be Our Theologians
What theology have we learned? Here are some concluding thoughts:
God loves beauty. God can be described by “Tiferet”, a Hebrew word representing the attribute of beauty, glory, and balance that integrates divine mercy (Chesed) and justice (Gevurah or Din)
God loves me with an everlasting, covenant love—Chesed.
God cares for me. He is El Roi, “the God who sees me.”
He is Jehovah Jireh, my Provider. Jehovah Rapha, my Healer.
He is the God of this present moment—make every moment count. Presence and Sovereignty
Contentment: Just “be.” Be content in Him. Be content in His love. Just be with the one you love.
Trust in the slow work of God. Sovereignty
Every child of God is glorious and beloved. Love
I am eternally His. Not by anything that I have done, but by His Mercy and Grace (Jesus) I am His forever! Salvation - Eternal Life
What truth about God or about you stands out in your mind?
What doctrine did you notice that I did not mention?
How can the truths taught by the flowers change your life today? What is God leading you to apply?
The Glenmoor at Aspen Ridge is the current name. https://theglenmoorgroup.com/about/ “We are a Center of Counseling, Training & Development for Christian Leaders and their teams.” Just today we had a delightful lunch with the founders of the Glenmoor Group. What they plan to do here is incredibly impressive.
In 2018, it was Potter’s Inn at Aspen Ridge. So when we say we’ve returned to Potter’s Inn, it is nostalgia and gratefulness for what God did in 2018. We now rejoice in what he continues to do today through the Glenmoor Group.
Your writing brings such joy to my heart! Keep up the amazing writing!
For my husband, who goes yearly with a men’s group hiking in Colorado…soul care! For him and I, we find birds as our theologians! Quite often they led us to see El Roi! Just seeing the detail and care and thoughtfulness in each bird reminds me how much more does He care for us, how he crafted us with such loving attentiveness! God is so good! Oh the daily stories of His goodness overwhelm me!
This really got to me. It’s something I’ve been wrestling with too. I’ve always been one of those people who equate loving God with working myself to the bone for Him. The whole “rest in the Lord” concept felt foreign when my default was hustling and striving to prove my worth.
But lately I’m learning that he’s not standing there with a stopwatch. That the love isn’t conditional on how much I produce or achieve. It’s been a slow shift for me to accept that just being present can be enough.
The flowers-as-theologians angle caught my attention, too. There’s something profound about how they exist beautifully with no agenda or performance anxiety. They don’t worry about being productive. They just are what they’re created to be.