Irises in Autumn ….and economic promise

One morning in early October I was pleasantly surprised to find several iris buds blooming in my garden. This particular iris had apparently defied the notion that it should bloom only in the spring! And for the rest of that month, I was rewarded with a continuous bounty of beautiful lavender flowers.

The appreciation I felt for these wonderful blooms challenged me to think more deeply about God and His goodness. I asked myself if this little iris plant could teach me a big spiritual lesson—specifically direct me to how I could pray about what looked like a less-than-bountiful world economy.

A marvelous quotation from Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health came to mind, “The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity.” I thought about how an apostle is one who is assigned to carry out a mission to advance an important message. And hieroglyphs are symbols or pictures in sacred writings, or inscriptions that communicate a message to the observer.

To me, the message that my iris “apostle” was sending had everything to do with the abundance that God provides for all of his children, despite the changing times and unseasonable “soil” in which to grow. Seeing these blooms was helping me mentally reverse the negative picture of an economic crisis. It came so clearly to me that the goodness God gives is not seasonal! Harmony, order, and proper spiritual development are permanent, intact because their source is God.

The message of my iris “apostle” was similar to God’s message to Jeremiah for all of His children, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Clearly God’s message is one of encouragement, success, sufficient supply, and constant love.

My husband and I actually had firsthand experience with this kind of message when we established our first retail bridal store twenty years ago. We had hired someone and left this individual to manage our store while we went on a necessary buying trip. We returned to the store a week later and were presented with a severe financial setback that needed to be reversed immediately. While we were gone, not a single sale had taken place, and we were faced with significant expenses coming due in a few days.

Our first thought was to turn to God and pray. We saw an opportunity to prove, to bear witness to this statement from Science and Health: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” And so we immediately called a Christian Science practitioner and asked him to pray with us for our business.

The practitioner shared the idea that the basis of our bridal business was to support this statement from Science and Health: “Marriage is the legal and moral provision for generation among human kind.” Therefore, we could be assured that this idea came with God’s provision of supply as Paul said in II Corinthians, “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality.” He reminded us that our business had an abundant supply for the community’s want; in fact, the purpose of our buying trip had been to provide fresh merchandise, so it was natural for our customers, in turn, to “supply our want” by supporting our business.

Within an hour, customers began to come into the store. One mother came in with her two daughters and bought bridal gowns for each of them. By the time we closed our doors, five hours later, we had sold twelve dresses and bridal gowns. In the days following, our business continued to blossom, and we were able to meet all of our financial obligations.

Needless to say, we rejoiced in this practical demonstration of the power of God’s goodness to overcome every obstacle. Our daily study of the Bible had taught us that Christ Jesus clearly recognized this divine power when he was presented with a shortage of food—he needed to feed five thousand people who had come to hear him speak. But he met the challenge by beginning with gratitude for God’s provision, and the loaves and fishes were multiplied to feed the multitude.

So I offer this thought, “Irises in October? Why not?!” God’s goodness is permanent, unchanging, and always available to each of His children. As we vigorously reject ideas of instability, loss, and economic meltdown and replace them with the confidence that God’s love and goodness are sufficient to meet financial challenges, we will find that the right answers and solutions are at hand.

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