Fourth Week of Advent Reflection

Awaiting Renewal: Fourth Week

by George Pasley

Walking on the blistering pavement

On the hottest day of the summer

On the hottest year in decades,

I discovered

Thriving in the split concrete of the walk

Some sort of flowers, miniscule,

That only God could have planted

And only somebody looking straight down

Would have noticed.

They thrived there,

And bloomed,

When they would have died on the lawn

Or been yanked out and discarded from the garden

Or never grown at all,

In the shade of the giant tree.

And before long

There came a thunderstorm

And those miniscule flowers disappeared,

While along that street hibiscus flourished

And hydrangea showed off their stuff

And gladiolas burst forth in shouts of color.

But I remember first those miniscule flowers

That only God could have planted

And who only bloomed

During that one hot, dry spell.

I remember,

Because God sent them

To where I was

And they were my talisman of hope

Until blossoms burst forth 

In the desert turned garden.

George Pasley is a poet and pastor of Ketchikan Presbyterian Church in Ketchikan, AK. The question most often asked of George Pasley by his Alaska congregation is, "Where are you going now?" In 2016 the vagabond pastor visited Cuba with the Outreach Foundation, and South Korea with the Presbytery of Northwest Coast Korea study group. Next year, he may just stay home.