Dear Friends,

The Linea flower, half the size of a daisy, I am told is hidden away in remote and seemingly insignificant places of the earth where few people ever pass to discover its beauty or inhale its magnificent fragrance.

Do you feel God has given you an insignificant role or put you in a remote, hidden place? 

I remember many years back when the congregation I was then serving was still quite small after many years of ministry, hearing from my college friends who trained alongside me that they were in bigger churches or maybe were now on their second or third churches and I was still in my first. I confess I felt envious, peeved and complained to the Lord about my seeming predicament. Why have you asked me to work and stay in a small church? His answer? “This is where I asked you to work and I provide the grace to enable you to work faithfully no matter how insignificant you may feel. Get on and serve me as I desire and don’t bemoan your lot in life!”  I was suitably chastised and was pointed to a comment made by Paul of the foolishness of measuring ourselves against others. “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves they are not wise!” (2Corinthians 10:12)

I read recently and considered these words from Frank Boreham as he discovered the Linea flower while hiking in a remote region…

“Again and again I held it near my face; enjoying the perfume…I looked up and thanked God for this tiny flower, so insignificant, growing in a wild, almost untrodden forest, yet bringing cheer and refreshment to me. I thought, why is it so obscure, when it is a flower with such fragrance, and surely worthy of a place in the most stately grounds?  I learned a lesson by it—I thought, ‘if I cannot be a tall pine in God’s forest, I may be a tiny flower to send forth the fragrance of Jesus in a world of so much sadness.’”

These words really helped and encouraged me to see my worth in God no matter where He might call me to serve Him and I commend them to you.

You may not be one of those great pine trees growing in God’s forest that many eyes can see; you maybe like the Linea flower, planted by God in a seemingly insignificant place, to bless others, to renew the weary, to strengthen the weak, to lift the discouraged, and to refresh those in need of encouragement as they continue on to follow the Lord.

May the favour (or the beauty) of the Lord our God rest upon us. Psalm 90:17 NIV 

Yours in Christ,