I also love tulips because they come from bulbs which are insanely easy to make grow and they come back year after year. Tulips were my first foray into gardening. I planted twenty-five bulbs one cool fall day and low and behold, by the time April rolled around I had an array of colorful flowers blooming by my front door. I planted more and more every year until now I probably have hundreds that grow every season.
My daughter and I love to give them to friends and neighbors when babies are born, performances end, and to bring a smile to the people we love. Somehow they always seem impressed that they were cut from our own garden. Not actually impressive to be able to grow tulips I think, but sown with love for sure.
This year my children discovered that if they cut a few and gave them out to random neighbors at unexpected times, they received candy in return. Apparently single men feel the need to give something to small children holding flowers on their doorstep. I saw that this was quickly getting out of control any time my kids craved more sweets, so I told them they could no longer give flowers for candy. They are special and should be treated as such.
One other thing I like about tulips is that they come from those hideously ugly, shriveled, garlic-looking bulbs, and then mere months later they turn into a rainbow of beauty. I thought that C.S. Lewis said something about how we are like tulip bulbs now and our incarnate bodies when Christ returns will be like tulips.
I can't find this quote for the life of me, so I may have made it up, but I'm pretty sure Lewis said it, or maybe it was N.T. Wright. Anyway, I like it because I'm feeling very tulip bulbish these days. Dried up, wrinkly, hideous in my own special ways. At times like this I like to remember that this is only for a little while. Maybe God is working His garden, preparing to plant me in His rich soil and patiently wait for me to grow. And then when the time comes, I will be one of His favorite flowers - bright and alive and shining in His sunshine.
Sadly, my tulips are almost all dead now and I really don't have any flowers to take their place. But I came across the verse in Isaiah 40 the other day that says, "the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."
It brings me hope that someday we'll all be flowers in the garden of our Lord who will never fall again.
