Flower Press
Recently I was given a couple of tiny wildflowers.
They came from a distant place where they are quite prolific but I had never
been to that region and had never seen them.
Theirs was a loveliness never revealed to me before.
Enchanted, I put them in a vase for a few days and then decided to press
them and preserve them for a longer time.
One of my old flower presses was called into service, lined with absorbent
paper, and the wildflowers carefully arranged. Gently I screwed the top down
just a little.
Next morning, I tightened it a little further to expel any moisture that
would destroy the flowers.
Each day for several days, I tightened the press until it would go no
further and then it stayed that way for two weeks. It seemed a harsh thing
to do but by then the flowers were firmly preserved and their deteriorating
elements were expelled. They would deteriorate no further and were preserved
for all time
I took them out and arranged them to their special advantage so that I could
appreciate their beauty and reveal their beauty to others for a long time to
come.
Sometimes I think God uses flower press techniques to preserve us. We wonder
why we are put in severe and trying places and why it keeps getting harder.
He is getting rid of the self-sufficiency that would destroy us.
God never destroys us, he puts us in his flower press and tightens it down
each day to get rid of the rubbish. Finally, only beauty remains to be
revealed.
Paul saw it this way, ‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to
us.’ Romans 8:18.
Elizabeth Price