Recently, I started work at a flower shop. Being an avid gardener, I really love working with flowers.
As you might guess, Valentine’s Day is the biggest day of the year in the flower business. In preparation for the big rush, my co-workers had showed me how to create various flower arrangements. They seemed to like my work, so I expected to be making lots of arrangements for Valentine’s Day orders.
I had been warned about how hectic it would be, but I was stoked as I pictured myself with puddles of petals at my feet and long-stemmed roses of every hue at my flying fingertips. But when the rush hit, I was told that my job was to green-in vases. “Greening” means tightly arranging greenery into vases of water so that they are ready for the designers to put the flowers into more quickly.
Now, it’s not that I don’t appreciate my employers’ confidence in my ability to green vases (because it is a skill, after all). It’s just that it didn’t really fit the vision of my role in making people’s Valentine wishes come true. The more greened vases I passed down the assembly line, the more I started to wonder why I wasn’t getting to work with the flowers more? I began to even kind of pity myself, thinking, “why did they train me how to arrange flowers if I was just going to be the greener? They must have thought my flower arrangements stunk.”
Self-Pity
Fortunately, my self-pity was short-lived as the Lord impressed me with an illustration. God reminded me that in being a part of the the body of Christ, every part is just as useful as another. An ankle may not be the most visually appealing member. It may even be covered up most of the time. But without it, the whole body would suffer and be less efficient. It’s amazing how much better I felt when I considered that illustration. After all, without the greens, the flowers would all just float haphazardly. They wouldn’t have form or balance, and the recipient’s joy would be greatly decreased. From that moment, I took pride in my greening station! In fact, I pronounced myself the Queen of Green! I actually began enjoying it and worked to increase my speed and skill with each vase.
When I was leaving that evening, I heard my employers talking and one of them commented that our efficiency was better this year since I was doing the greening. I had to stop and silently thank the Lord for humbling me and for rewarding my efforts with a realization that whether it is in our daily work or in God’s work, the part that God assigns us is the place we are needed most at the time. The Bible Says, “…for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11).
Since then, I have done more flower arranging, but I hope I never forget the lessons I learned as the Queen of Green.
