The flowers have already appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines, and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.” Song of Solomon 2:12 This is the last phrase from a dream I awoke from this morning. It lifted me into my day, and this is the view from the blessed launching:

I wondered if it was put upon my lips because of how the flowers decorate the gardens of so many of my photographs. I thought about how they bring with them the vivacity and joy of their unfurling to our homes. I could envision the bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths as they intensely look for the very ones made for them to pollinate. I felt excited, as I knew I would soon be out among them watching the light glance off their silken colors. Perfume filled the rising from my pillow.

Although these are all touching reflections upon my exorbitant joy in the blooms, they weren’t what I felt the dream was telling me. I decided to look into the structural purpose of the gorgeous ruffles along so many of my daily paths (especially so, as they appear all year round in San Diego).

They are far from being just momentary beauties. They are reproductive engines of the most ingenious design! When I saw the singular ways in which they have been fashioned to ensure their continuance I was thrilled by their mysterious wonder even more. Each one of the amazing windborne ballet-costumes has within it the fruit or the seed of its own multiplication. The flower dances in welcoming celebration to its visitors to carry it on to another place of glorification. It never wants to simply flourish in a beauty for beauty’s sake, for such a small sweet moment, and to say that this was its only purpose.

Ah! The dream was making sense. Our lives have their own way of blooming along the Way. They do give the bright glory to the One who made us, but within all of us is the seed, or the fruit, to spread the glory ever further. A life is not about a solitary beauty; it is to send out the great and ever more loving profusion of grace upon the land. We have been designed to grow gardens of grace by the wings of our loved-ones, those who visit with us and fly to other places of great wonder. Gossamer gowns do not hide the seed and the fruit within us, at the center is the real heart of our presence to be with each other. The things within are even more lovely and bounteous than the things on the outside. The seed and the fruit endure; the petal does not. I was getting my Matthew 26:28 lesson this day about observing the lilies of the field and how they grow.

Just moments later as I was reading my Psalm for the morning (17), I actually heard a dove on the ledge of our window. I rushed to see if it was so. A pair of doves was scouting out a nesting place and their voices came right to my place of study. What were they saying? The last sentence of this Psalm is: “I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.”

It was just so for me this morning. And His likeness was scented with the teachings of delightful gardens and with the voice of the turtledove in our land.