color from the ground

Recently I was in the garden section of one of the hardware superstores.  I was struck with the brilliant colors of the various flowers on display.  There were sections of purple, yellow, red and blends of color presented by the blooms.  This morning, on my walk, I spotted and picked a few wild Black Eyed Susans for Shirley.  The thought occurs that it is a marvelous thing to see the brilliant color that God brings out of the ground.  After all, a plant starts as a seed or a piece of another plant and somehow when planted in soil it grows and reaches a point where it may burst open in one of the rainbow hues.  I know that there is practical function in the color as the birds and the bees are drawn there for pollination, food supply and honey.  But I think it borders on the miraculous that something can be stuck into brown dirt and proceed to grow into something colorful.  It makes me think of us...the people...who are also from the earth.  The Lord has fashioned us from the elements of the earth...cleverly organized through DNA coding into complex life.  Ultimately He produces color in and through our lives.  We don't make ourselves colorful and plants don't make themselves colorful.  The Lord expresses Himself and His colorful nature through all of His creation...starting with the dirt beneath our feet.  One day our  bodies will return to dirt to be used in another fashion, but our color will live on in God's presence.   Genesis 2: At the time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground—God hadn't yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs)—God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!   blessings, Rob Smith