Blooming Morning Mercies

For my birthday, I was given some gladioli. They’re beautiful, tall flowers, with many buds. The most beautiful part about them though is that only a couple buds blossom at a time. Now, that might seem like a downside. It would seem that a flower with so many buds would be more beautiful if all the buds blossomed at once, but that’s not true of this flower. This flower has around eight to ten buds. The first one is seated about halfway up the long stem and one by one they assemble up to the top of the stem.
Now, here’s where the exciting part comes in. When the plant first blossoms, only the flower on the very bottom comes out from the bud, it lasts for one glorious day. Then the next day it wilts and you must pluck it off.
BUT!
That is not the end for our beautiful flower! While the bud from the first day wilts, the next bud, the one directly above it is blossoming! This continues until all the buds have blossomed!

I’ve been greatly enjoying waking up each morning to see a new little beauty that has come out of its bud and I’ve even enjoyed picking off the dead blooms and throwing them away. And as I’ve been doing all this it struck me that these flowers are much like how our Christian lives should look.

In Ephesians 4:22-24 it says,

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Just like the gladiolus, everyday in our lives we are to take off the old and put on the new.
Everyday as we allow God to work in our lives, as we spend time in His Word, as we spend time talking and listening to Him, and following Him, He molds us to be more like Him. He reveals our sinfulness, and forgives us, so that we can purge ourselves of our old nature, and He shows us how to follow Him and how to be made new and holy.

But that’s not the only way the gladioli are like our Christian life.
In Lamentations 3:22-23 it says,

“Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His mercy never fails. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness”

When we wake up every morning God has new mercies for us.
Isn’t that amazing! Just like when I wake up each morning a new flower has bloomed!
God never runs out of mercy and grace for us. We can never mess up too big for Him to forgive. He always loves us and always be there with a new morning full of new mercies!
Mercy that allows us to have salvation, Mercy that allows us to have a relationship with Christ, Mercy that allows us to be free from sin, Mercy that allows us to have God’s Word and read it, Mercy that allows us to live a joy-filled life no matter the circumstance.

So, tomorrow when you wake up, or even right now, remember God’s great mercy and take time to be with Him, thank Him, and let Him show you how you can daily take off the old and put on the new. Just like the beautiful blossoms on my gladiolus.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"