Flowers

My calf muscles were soothed by cool metal. The bathtub was dry and empty, and I was hoping that my brother wouldn’t stop talking over me. Still in my t-shirt and shorts—absolute must haves for Australian summers—the game we were playing demanded that no water be in the tub. I lay flat on my back. The frigid skin of the tub was now cutting through my cotton clothes. I liked it. It was the closest thing we had to air conditioning.

An hour before, my brother and I had raided the supply cupboard and pinched a couple of rolls of toilet paper. We created a production line of artificial flowers made from the toilet paper tissue. They looked like generous dollops of white meringue.

The rim of the tub was decorated with our roughly crafted toilet paper flowers. I had one flower pressed against my eight-year old chest. It was hard to keep my eyes shut, but that was important because I was playing at being dead.

My brother gave the eulogy.

We’d switch roles, and it became my turn to speak nice things about the dearly departed. My brother would be the corpse, and the bath tub was now his open coffin.

Looking back, we were weird children with a slightly morbid bent, but then again, we were just kids play acting.

Children have a different idea of what is considered good taste. You only have to look at the presents brought home from a typical school Mother’s Day stall to understand.

Consider, first of all, that the majority of gifts at the stall are donated items. I actually know some mums who’ve received gifts from the stall and quietly re-donated their presents—how very environmentally conscious of them. Secondly, the saying, “You get what you pay for” is absolutely true.

For five dollars a kid can buy: a pair of shiny earrings (that may or may not lead to an ear lobe infection), a mug filled with lollies, a cute fluffy toy, perfume that repels roaches, a plastic photo frame, and a clock with seashells glued haphazardly around the numbers.

And talcum powder. Who on earth uses talcum powder anymore?

When my son was in first grade, he came home with presents from the Mother’s Day stall. His eyes were shining as he handed over his selection of gifts to me. One was a brass vase filled with bright yellow, plastic flowers.

They were ghastly.

But I loved the boy who thought that I would love them.

Even my husband thought the flowers were not much to look at, and so the plastic flowers were on display on the dining table for a week before they “mysteriously” disappeared.

Some artificial flowers nowadays are very life like. You’d have to get pretty close to see that they’re not real at all. Some have globules of clear plastic resin that resemble dew drops, and petals that feel less like cloth and more like actual blossoms.

On the high end, there are artificial flowers that even come with a bottle of perfume that you spray on to the flowers. The floral scent is meant to complete the illusion.

These expensive fake flowers look stunning, but there’s nothing like the real thing—the genuine article.

When it comes to love, we’re all searching for the real thing. Nobody wants to be in a relationship where the guy is pretending to love you. It’s not very nice to be dumped because someone better has come along.

When you’re young and innocent it’s easy to fall for manipulators—the type that know all the right words to say. It really hurts when you realize that the young man who claimed to love you was only using you.

It’s so important to understand the motives behind people’s words and actions.

In the Bible the word “unfeigned” means sincere, without hypocrisy.

Reference: Strong’s Concordance.

The love that we have for each other should be genuine and free from ulterior motives. Our love should be the real thing.

1 Peter 1:22

Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Romans 12:9a

Let love be without dissimulation (hypocrisy).

And our love for our Lord—is that the real thing?

We know that God’s love is real. It’s up there beaming in bright neon lights.

John 3 :16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God sacrificed his Son, Jesus, for us. His Son took upon himself the punishment for all our sins. Jesus died for our redemption so that we could be the true sons and daughters of God.

I hope that when my time comes, and my body is lowered into an actual coffin; that when I stand before my Lord face to face, that the flowers of my love and devotion for Him are real.