My Dear Shepherds,

The bouquet of red roses caught my attention. Just before Christmas two women and a little girl found seats near the fireplace in the coffee shop where I hang out. They brought the roses. One of the women, a pastor’s wife, recognized me, and we chatted for a moment. “Who are the roses for?” I asked. “We don’t know yet,” she replied. “We’re going to ask God who we should give them to.”

Anyone could surprise strangers with flowers, but these rose givers prayed because they believed that God had already singled out someone in that coffee shop for grace. They believed that God’s prearranged timing of their gift would add his sacred beauty to their roses.

A lot of our pastoral work is planned, predictable, and often solitary, but as we’re out and about we also have the privilege of surprising people with roses.

Many Christians surprise others with God’s grace gifts, but haven’t you found that even strangers, upon learning that you are a pastor, often give you priestly access into the private rooms of their lives, the way we have access to hospital rooms after visiting hours? They recognize us as God’s agents, and we know that God directed us to their table.

That trio of rose givers expected that their bouquet would be a complete surprise and that it would be memorable for its beauty, but they prayed because they believed that God had brought someone to that coffee shop for his blessing and that the timing would be just perfect. Coincidences, after all, are God’s most common miracle.

Perhaps we ought to have a dried rose hanging on our rearview mirror or a little rose tattoo on the back of our hand to remind us to be on the lookout. Our roses may have the fragrance of deep listening, honoring someone for work others take for granted, an unexpected prayer, or timely verse of Scripture. But in all our busyness, be on the lookout. Listen for the Lord’s whispered prompt.

I had to find out what happened with those roses, so I tracked down the woman I’d met. She said this idea of giving away Christmas roses had been passed down to her. The year before, she and her eight-year-old daughter, roses at the ready, were in a store when her daughter pointed out a woman. (“My daughter doesn’t have the Holy Spirit, Jr.,” the woman told me. “The Holy Spirit speaks to her!”) When they gave her the roses, the woman was stunned and wept. Turns out she was grieving the recent death of her husband, and the roses were a miraculous love gift from God.

That day after I’d left the coffee shop the three of them prayed and her daughter spotted a woman sitting alone in a corner booth. So they walked over and told her that God wanted her to have the roses. Of course, she was shocked. She had gotten out of the house for some quiet while her husband stayed with their two sick kids.

My friend said that after they parted she felt like the gift hadn’t been as special as the year before; “kind of a bust,” she said. But then the Lord whispered to her, “Do you think I wouldn’t see a tired mom with two sick kids at home and want her to have roses?”

We can do what those three did—surprise people with bouquets of grace. The verse that prompts my friend’s grace-giving is:

Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. (2 Cor. 5:14, NLT)

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.