Like a flower garden in an alleyway

Behind our home, there is a dirt-paved, trash can-lined alleyway with power and telephone lines arching overhead. And in that dusty, tumbledown alleyway, there is an unexpected gift—a row of the brightest flowers, growing tall and wild, along a neighbor’s chain link fence. 

The presence of these flowers may be surprising, but it is not accidental. My neighbor planted them with care and tends them regularly. She has chosen to bring beauty to what would otherwise be merely dust.

Each time I have passed by these flowers this summer, they have spoken so powerfully to me of the work of the Spirit in this world: bringing hope where there should be despair. Breathing resurrection life where there should be dry bones. Cultivating joy where there should be only sorrow. Tending a flower garden in a dirt-paved alleyway.