Be Our Guest / Richard Corona

What is the purpose of a single flower?

I’ve been a catechist at St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis for the past 11 years, currently teaching family formation—confirmation students as well as Order of Christian Initiation for Children (OCIC) for students in sixth through 12th grade.

Each year, I have my students complete a free-flowing writing assignment in class answering the question, “What is the purpose of a single flower?”

Unbeknownst to them, their writing becomes a mystical letter from God describing his purpose for each of them. 

As humanity is able to see further and further into the mystery of the universe, we should never forget that God created it so that we might come to know him and his love for us. If we take the time, in quiet space, to reflect on nature and perhaps on something as small and simple as a flower, we discover how God bursts with eagerness to talk with us. Each of us are his most precious flower—as only he can will.

Each year, as I read my students’ writings to create a compilation of some of each of their statements, I’m never disappointed to hear a new message from God through my students.

Here are some of the responses to my question from OCIC students and members of family formation-confirmation group this year:

The purpose of a single flower is to show there is always hope in life.

—With a single flower you can make many and of all types.

—The purpose of a single flower is to gift someone.

—The purpose of a single flower is to grow to its full potential; when it does, that flower can help make new flowers.

—Flowers are symbols of beauty and God’s love. Flowers need rain like we need love. The sun for flowers is like hardships for us. It may be hot, but we will eventually grow from it.

—The purpose of a single flower is to show you hope and resilience. A flower blooms every year just to die, but while it blooms it shows you there is light at the end of the tunnel.

—A single flower in the middle of a green field is beautiful. It fought for the spot it is in. God is always going to protect the tiny little flower in a field of green.

—Kids like to bring parents a flower with a smile and a laugh; so, a flower reminds one of good times with family.

—God gave every living thing a purpose to live on this planet—a purpose to make a difference in this large world. It doesn’t matter how big or small.

—The purpose of a single flower is to give us life, and it shows us how life is when you need water for it to grow; and our water is God.

—The colors of flowers vary just like our colors of skin, hair and eyes.

—There are many flowers, but we all serve the same purpose to help the environment around them.

—Flowers need resources to grow. Just like the flower, we need resources to grow. Those resources can be people we know and trust who can help us grow in our faith in God, like parents and friends.

—A single flower as a gift is more special because you had to hand pick it, so it means more and has more behind it.

—As God’s most precious flower, we each have a purpose. He hand-selected and created us as a gift for others—to share with others the beauty of his love, that we may come to know that we need him. And that death is not the end.
 

(Richard Corona is a member of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis.) †