Sometimes we get all caught up in running here, there and back again, taking care of the family, the house, the kids, working in the office—you name it. There are times in the midst of our busy lives when God gently reminds us of His presence and His handiwork. He teaches us things through nature.

Recently I was standing in front of a house with a latticework porch, and I noticed that there were several tulips, one of which had a personality of its own. While all of the tulips had been planted in front of the latticework porch, this particular one had decided to take a distinct path of its own.

Apparently, when the stem started shooting out of the ground, instead of growing up straight like the others, this one decided to intertwine its stem around one section of the lattice, and then it produced its bud and blossomed in all its glorious yellow brilliance.
I stood there spellbound by its beauty, realizing that in order to attain its goal, it had taken a slightly different path to maturity, but blossomed just as beautifully in the end. Yes, it took the harder path to beauty, but it had achieved it nonetheless.

It got me to thinking. There are many times when life strikes us hard—where we have to work harder to achieve our goals. Life has many twists and turns, and we have many decisions to make.

This flower seemed to have a sense of humor. It seemed to peek at me as if it were a small child holding onto the lattice.

God reminds us through His creation that He's here, seeing our struggles. As long as our hearts are with Him, we, too, will be beautiful in His eyes.

Sometimes it's not easy to deal with all the obstacles thrown our way, but we must keep on reaching higher. Soon we will be blossoming as a beautiful tulip. Sometimes it just takes us longer to bloom, but we will if we persist, even if we have to go through the lattice of life.

Due to circumstances, sometimes sheer will and determination, along with a lot of imagination, are needed to get us to where we are going. God helps us along the way, giving us the spiritual lattice to hang onto so we can reach our destination in life—the Kingdom of God.

Think on the small things, the details that God gently places in our paths. This flower helped me realize that despite the struggles it went through to bloom, it was as beautiful as all the others.

Let's be that determined tulip. Don't give up. Hang in there. Let's grow toward the Kingdom of God.