The Iris

A letter to Sam's Kindergarten teacher on Teacher's Appreciation Day:

There is a story behind this iris.  I wanted to share the beauty of the flower, as well as what God has shown me through it.

We were home from serving overseas on our Stateside Assignment and grew very close to an elderly woman at our church in Raleigh.  She asked Bill to come to a relative's house and dig up some iris bulbs to plant at the house where we were staying.  He did, and that very day was the day Sam had his first seizure at just 10 months-old.  The iris bulbs became forgotten for weeks.

I had viral meningitis on the day (three days after the seizure) Sam was diagnosed.  The last thing we could think about was planting those bulbs.  Then one day, I realized we would have to plant some of them so they wouldn't die.  I did.

I left the rest, about five, to rot in a plastic bag on our back doorstep.  Months later, and after a harsh winter by Raleigh standards, Bill took the job with Samaritan's Purse and we began our move to Boone.  I picked up the bag in March and saw that the irises were growing.  I shoved the bag in the floorboard of my car, as an afterthought, and dragged them to Boone.

We didn't buy a house until late July and they sat, again, in their plastic bag to rot and die.  I found them in late August and planted them, because, somehow, they were STILL growing.

The next year, around this time of year, I saw that they were blooming.  The most beautiful purple irises I'd ever seen.  God showed me something that Spring.  It took me almost a year and a half to realize it, but He showed me that I am like this iris.  Bill is too.  But especially Sam.

We battered a storm during those 18 months.  Many hospitalizations, almost losing our only child countless times, our marriage struggled, our prayer lives were tested, and we had to acknowledge that Sam is God's and He can take him any time.  It was brutal.  Those irises battered a storm too.  Bad weather, no soil to nurture them, no oxygen in a plastic bag that was unprotected from the elements.

But God made each of those bulbs.  Because He made them, He protected them and they stand today as blossoms in my garden.  A testimony of His love, His protection, His grace, His faithfulness to His creation.

Just as I do.  As Bill does.  And as Sam has blossomed and lived, so does he. I am sharing this blossom with you because you are also a testimony of God's love, protection, grace, and faithfulness to His creation.

Thank you for sharing that with my family.  With me.  And with Sam, my firstborn son, who is not really mine at all.

Love,

Teesa