Beauty in the Chaos

My husband has the "green thumb" at our house. He always does an amazing job in the yard and I appreciate so much the beauty that I see as we walk up to our front door or drive up the driveway.

This year the flower planting took on a different twist. With our very stressful season of life he decided it would be easier to plant wildflower seeds in the flower beds by our front porch. I was excited to see what would happen with them and we began watching them grow. 

I trusted that what my husband had sown into the ground was really what he said. The problem we found is that they appear as just a lot of green plants at first and they all look the same! When they were first growing, I could not always recognize the wildflowers from the weeds, but my husband could recognize most of the weeds and was able to separate them out from the actual wildflowers. Even that became challenging as they got bigger! 

I would look out the front windows or sit on the porch looking at what was growing taller and taller. All that it showed was more mess than beauty. I began to wonder if anything was really going to come from this growing chaos. However, I had to remember that they are called "WILDflowers" for a reason! Let's just say the walk to our front door this summer has not been so neat and orderly!

Then, one day, a bloom appeared. It was only one. I was sitting at the dining room table which is right by the front porch and it captured my attention. The one bloom was going to be white and I decided to watch it for the next couple of days to enjoy the beauty unfold. It became like a daily present - to view the beauty that was happening in the midst of the chaos. I knew I needed to capture this beauty because I was not sure how many I would actually get to see! I was in awe while looking through my camera lens at what was being shown in the messy chaos. 

At first I thought the only flowers would be the white ones and was glad I was at least seeing some version of beauty, but each day a colorful variation of the original white flower began to open. During the growing times I looked at the growth of the original flowers and saw different flowers blooming underneath. I had to move back some of the taller stems and see them but they were there bursting forth with color and detail! Others really were hidden and I had to search for them. They were being overshadowed by the taller "mess" of the now-blooming wildflower. I even found out that some of the weeds intermingled through the wildness began to bloom and I began to appreciate their beauty as well.  

I decided to keep my camera close so that I could go out in the mornings and capture the newest surprises. What I thought was going to just be chaos ended up being one of the highlights of my days. There really was beauty in the chaos. I just had to look for it.

Through these wildflowers, the Lord has been showing me more of Himself. I have felt like my world has been in chaos for so long. I sometimes wonder if it will ever go back to being "orderly" again. 

Life can feel like how these wildflowers grow. Instead of life being "planted" decently and in order, the seeds of life are scattered in the ground and it becomes a messy time of growth. There are unwanted "weeds" of circumstances that come up in the middle of it all and it can be hard to know the difference between what has been planted and what is rising out of the soil wanting to choke out all that is rooted and growing. Chaos ensues and it can feel as if beauty will never come from any of it! 

Life certainly is wild and chaotic. It is important that we learn to trust where the Lord has planted us to see the beauty He has for us.

Sometimes the beauty is easy to see. 

Sometimes it takes searching to find the beauty because it can be overshadowed with the chaos. 

And sometimes beauty can even come from the weeds....just like this one I captured below.