It’s spring!  I love seeing the grass turn green.  Most of all I enjoy watching spring flowers pop up and display their bright colors in stark contrast to the dead leaves and grasses around them.  While driving down the road, have you ever noticed daffodils growing in strange places?    I used to walk in the woods up behind our house.  I’d find clumps of daffodils growing in overgrown clearings.  When I see these flowers growing in unlikely places, I wonder what used to be there.  After all, to my knowledge, they don’t just grow in the wild.  They grow and multiply from bulbs that someone once planted.  Long after an old farmhouse, homestead, or barn is gone, the flowers continue to grow where they were planted.  Seeing these bright, cheery flowers in unlikely places always makes me smile.

We’ve been studying the book of Philippians in the Ladies Sunday School Class.  The chapter we are working through in our Sunday School quarterly is: “So What If I Murmur and Complain?”   Philippians 2:14-15 says, “Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.”  The writer of our quarterly includes this quote by John F. Walvoord:  “The contrast between a Christian, who is completely blameless, and the world, completely perverted, is a study in opposites.  While most Christians are far from being depraved in their life, any impurity for this reason stands out all the more.” (from “Philippians: Triumph in Christ”)

Murmuring and complaining come easily when we are selfishly focused on our own happiness and comforts.  Like bright stars on a dark night…like bright daffodils in unlikely places, as Christians, our lives should stand out in stark contrast to those around us. If you are a believer, ask yourself, “Do my words and actions reflect the work Christ has done for me?  Do I stand out enough for people to wonder why I’m different?”