A Single Zinnia

How it got there I really do not know.  All I can say for sure is that no one around here dropped a seed in the ground expecting a zinnia to appear.  But, there it is, nonetheless.  It stands right at the foot of the steps next to a short walk way just off the front porch.  It has gotten so tall and wide that it is impossible to walk up the steps without brushing up against it.  Colorful zinnias are everywhere in the wide swatch of green.  It was first noticed some time ago as a small plant breaking the ground looking like something other than a weed.  So, with a sense of wonder, it was allowed to do its thing and do its thing it has!  Flowers abound and with it a host of hungry monarch butterflies.

 

I have tried to figure out how it got started.  All I can say for sure is that no human hand planted it and there were no human intentions in place that caused it to grow at such a well traveled place.  Maybe a bird dropped the seed.  Maybe a bird left droppings that had the zinnia seed within it.  Maybe the wind captured a seed from some distant flower bed and carried it through the air until it was dropped in the dirt there at the foot of the steps.  Maybe God planted it. 

 

I think I will go with the last possibility.  We have never had any zinnias around here and never had such a visitation of monarchs.  Somehow or another God dropped that seed and got it all started.  When I make one of my several trips by it every day, it speaks to me about the working presence of the Creator God in this place.  It is indeed marvelous what He is does daily to give life and to sustain life in this created order that is all around us.  Like the Psalmist, I find myself just standing in awe at the abounding surprises which come forth each day with the rising sun.  The Word that comes with the zinnia is as amazing as the flower itself.  The God of the universe hangs out around here and does marvelous and surprising things.