Violets

Today was one of those days that can either send you plummeting or pull you into an odd little nook of joy. Actually I haven't collected all my joy, but I expect to :) I won't go into details about the significant struggles I've been having, but I want to just ITERATE (to use a great vocab word) that God is God, and He's loving and...yes. He IS. And guess what. I can't make paragraphs again :( This morning Mattie and I had breakfast in bed together...peanut butter toast, and chai in dainty little cups with violets on them. Violets are extremely important. Without them, February would not be itself. Back to topic...Mattie and I had a nice breakfast and girl talk, dicussing our dream bedroom (which would resemble a princess's quarters from Arabian Nights, all in red and gold and shimmers). Poor Mattie is still suffering with the chicken pox (you know where she got them) but she was pretty perky most of the day today. Connor, on the other hand, has chicken pox and is not perky. As usual, he is the one with the high, constant fever. Even after the doctor's visit and taking meds he's had fever. Apparently only 5% of kids our age even get chicken pox! (and it can be really bad) I thought I had quite a case, but he is terribly miserable. Later today I breezed and slogged through English assignments by turns and fended off internal, invisible enemies. Walking around near our house later on, I found a patch of tiny violets on a hill, surrounded by all sorts of other little green grasses. Stooping down, I plucked a lavender violet (which was hardly big enough to really hold) and sniffed it. I didn't know those have a smell!! But they do- a faint sweet scent. It spreads when you take it in. I asked God about the violet, because it smelled so good, and I was hurting, and I wanted to know what it had to do with my life. What He seemed to be saying went something like this: You're like the violet. It looks too small to even have a scent, but its smell is sweet, and the wind blows it wherever it wishes. You have the fragrance of Christ, even though, compared to the whole universe, there's really no difference between the size of you and that violet. That fragrance will blow over the whole earth. It will blow in your family, where you live. You might not guess I smell like Jesus from some of my attitudes and actions here with my family, where it counts, but I'm growing to be like Him. The growing pains just seem to have intensified. So, just before supper time, I got a spade and the cut off end of a plastic bottle and, digging up that splotch of violets, I "planted" them and took them home. They are so delicate and dainty. It's a sign of hope :)