“Toss them in the dumpster” the Funeral Director told me, pointing to the flower arrangements which had been used at the church funeral service for a Parishioner. There was no more room for flowers in the hearse, these remaining arrangements were considered disposable by the funeral home.
There were hundreds of flowers in these arrangements. Beautiful colors, shapes, sizes. Toss them?! Absolutely not. God had other plans.
The funeral service that day was for a woman who had volunteered at the St. Mary’s Episcopal Church Food Pantry some ten years ago. She had been there in the early years, when the Pantry was located in a small room in the church basement. She’d be proud to see how it has grown to fill it’s own small building on the church campus.
The day following the funeral service, the Food Pantry was open and guests would come and select food, supermarket style. We brought out the flower arrangements and put them on the Food Pantry outside tables. We made up a sign which explained where the flowers had come from, and invited people to honor the Volunteer by taking flowers home to enjoy and to share.
Some people didn’t need prompting, and happily took flowers, making small arrangements. Other people were shy. Flowers were gently presented to them, and a warm smile spread on their faces as they took the flowers.
The remaining flowers were brought to the St. Mary’s Nearly New Thrift Shop to be shared with those customers.
Over 75 individuals from the Food Pantry and Thrift Shop were given unexpected gifts of flowers that day.
Recently one person proudly showed me the Gerber daisies she had chosen, still bright and cheerful, two weeks later flourishing in a water bottle vase. They were beautiful.
“Toss them”?! No. God had a better plan for these flowers once considered trash. They were treasures, little ambassadors of color, with a simple gesture making a small positive difference that day for people who typically don’t have flowers in their life.
Seeing God in the Ordinary 