This month, our meditation has been excerpted from the book entitled, Jesus Freaks Volume 2, compiled by DC Talk. In the following passage, some thoughts from Richard Wurmbrand about a flower provide us with fodder for reflection and perhaps application:

A flower, if you bruise it under your feet, rewards you by giving you its perfume. Likewise Christians, tortured by the Communists, rewarded their torturers by love.  We brought many of our jailers to Christ. And we are dominated by one desire: to give Communists who have made us suffer the best we have, the salvation which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.

A moment of introspection:  Do we ever feel bruised underfoot?  In gardening and horticultural circles, it is a well-known fact that fragrance can come from leaves, flowers, bark or stems of plants.  Flowers normally release their perfume without being touched, but leaves and other plant parts often need to be brushed or bruised to release their scented oils.  Essential oils used in making wonderfully aromatic potpourris make use of bruised flowers.  When we feel down-trodden, burdened and perhaps abused, might we be willing to be bruised for the sake of Christ our Lord?  Our rich Christian heritage described in the Bible gives us examples (2 Timothy 2:8-10; Hebrews 11:1-19; and more).  Christ Himself spoke of the blessings of being bruised for righteousness' sake (see the Beatitudes).  What, then, might our response be?  What could be our response?

May I suggest:  a flower in the eyes of our heavenly Father--who calls us the apple of His eye--we may reward the bruiser with our perfume.  Let's make our response to stress and frustration as a fragrance giving glory to God.  We have the delicate scent of heaven within us, called by His name, born anew for the purpose of service and praise, with a new nature bearing the sweetness of His salvation.  Let us consider the response we give to those thorns, those burdens, those stumbling blocks in our journey; counting it all joy, let us radiate the light of heaven--letting Christ illuminate our momentary discomfiture--our passing hardship.  Why?  That we might through that response, bring others to Christ.  Let us also be dominated by one desire--to give those who trouble us the best we have, the salvation which comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.  You and I can do more; let us pray we might do no less.