"Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." -1 Chronicles 29:14
The calyx of the flower is that green leafy part that covers the bud before it opens. It serves to protect the bud while it is forming. Lilias Trotter gleaned a lesson from the buttercup's calyx: "Look at this buttercup as it begins to learn its new lesson. The little hands of the calyx clasp tightly in the bud round the beautiful petals; in the young flower their grasp grows more elastic--loosening somewhat in the daytime, but keeping the power of contracting, able to close in again during a rainstorm, or when night comes on. But see the central flower which has reached its maturity. The calyx hands have unclasped utterly now--they have folded themselves back, past all power of closing again upon the petals, leaving the golden crown free to float away when God's time comes."
The lesson: "Have we learned the buttercup's lesson yet? Are our hands off the very blossom of our life? Are all things--even the treasures that He has sanctified--held loosely, ready to be parted with, without a struggle, when He asks for them?"
I am grateful that God asks nothing more of me than what He has given me.
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