You Do (n't) Bring Me Flowers......

I bolted up the stairs to her.  "I wondered what you'd think when you saw them," she said a little sheepishly.  Her shoulders drew up to her ears, like a little girl, and she wrinkled up her nose.  "It's so extravagant," she said to me, but her eyes twinkled to betray her delight.  She giggled a little and I got tears in my eyes and giggled with her.  Her husband has been gone four days on a mission trip to Haiti.  He's been on several.  But this time; this time he did the unexpected.  He's had flowers delivered to her each day he's been gone with a note to accompany each one. 

Theirs is not a young love; it's 20 plus years now and ten kids, one set of twins, between them.  He has a job that affords the ability to be this extravagant but they have hearts for others and choose most times to use their money for orphanages, for blessing those around them.  I have been the recipient of their "others love" many times. I know their hearts.  "It just seems like so much," she said. "Oh Lyn, don't you see?  Your man gets it. " I shared with her what I had just posted before coming to her house; to pray for your  husband so that he will see his worth in the Kingdom that lies within him.  A man of God who can love this extravagantly knows his place in the Kingdom.

I went on about my work and felt like a pitcher too full, threatening to slosh out tears as I worked on my knees to scrub up kid stains off the kitchen floor.  As one girl to another, I beat a happy heart for her.  Every girl longs to be loved like that, no matter how many kids you've had or how loose your skins becomes.  That "what are you thinking, that's way too much" kind of love.  It doesn't have to be four vases of flowers, it doesn't have to be money spent at all.  Just that poured out, extravagant expression that leaves no question marks.  I've not known that from a man with skin on.  But as I worked and hummed "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" I thought how this man lived out loving his wife like Christ did us and how that causes a person to grow and flourish and shine in the Son.  And I warmed myself in that thought.

Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! I John 3