These are not my flowers. And yet they sit on my kitchen table and smile at me each morning.

A few days ago a friend of mine asked if she could drop them off at our house. Because of various health issues we often are the beneficiaries of flowers and foods that she can’t enjoy.

These flowers embody beauty and pain. Joy and grief. The beauty I see and enjoy… the pain and loss she experiences. Both are present, intertwined and inseparable. I can’t acknowledge one without feeling the other. So I embrace them both.

Life in Christ is always both. Life in community is always both.

“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities; …through glory and dishonor, slander and praise; viewed as imposters, yet genuine; as unknown, yet well-known; dying, and yet we live on; punished, yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” 2 Corinthians 6:4,8-10

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Live in harmony with one another.” Romans 12:15,16