James and I attended a wedding yesterday. At the reception in the evening we were having a very nice time and enjoying good food. Over the course of the night the bride and groom did various traditions: First dance, father/daughter dance, Mother/son dance, cutting the cake, ect. One of my past favorites, I say "past" for obvious reasons, is the bouquet toss. There is nothing more amusing than watching a group of single women stand there with that hope in their eyes that they will be the one to catch the coveted flower arrangement!...as a side note, I did catch it once at my friend Shao Chen's wedding. I stand 5'10 and I was wearing 3 inch heels at the time and with a name like Shao Chen you know I was pretty much surrounded by not-as-tall Asian women, it was really no challenge...Anyway, there was the beautiful bride last night with her back turned to all the hopeful, single girls and on the DJ's countdown she let the bouquet fly. I believe it hit the ceiling or something because as it descended it was falling apart. Flowers kind of went flying and scattering everywhere and even more so when two of the ladies grabbed at pieces of it. In the end one girl stood victorious with most of what could be salvaged of the original piece. The staff of the reception hall very quickly swept the discarded flowers off of the dance floor before the dancing was reinstated.
...All but one...
It was pink. Beautiful. Perfectly formed. So pretty looking against the caramel colored dance floor. I was transfixed by it. It's petals swept closed in an almost shy modesty. I thought about picking it up, but I didn't want to move. It was so pretty right there towards the corner. No one noticed it, just me. There were close to 130 people in that reception hall. No one stopped to look, no one picked it up. It was discarded...The music started up again. This time instead of Frank Sinatra style music, more modern, what my Dad used to call "Boompity-boomp" music started. The bass shook my table. It started playing with my heartbeat (HATE THAT!) and all the while this rose lay there on the floor. But soon, as the crazy dancing ensued and people with too much to drink tripped past waitresses and flung themselves in every which way to the dance floor, it became crowded and before I knew it someone had danced by and in a moments time the beautiful pink rose had been trampled underfoot. They hadn't even noticed. This beautiful flower that had been raised from a seed, lovingly watered, carefully clipped, artfully arranged, had been DESTROYED...
As I stood to leave, I thought about that flower. I thought about how sometimes Jesus is like that rose. He's there, He's beautiful, He's peaceful, but unnoticed. He is forgotten amidst the trappings and parties of life....
Dear LORD Jesus, May I never forget You are present with me ALWAYS! May I never trample you underfoot as I run around in my busy life. May I stop to take notice of You at multiple points of EVERY day! You are so much more than a pretty rose! You are my Beautiful Savior and I LOVE YOU!!! ~Amen~
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