Enduring Kindness

It is very exciting to see how God has His unique ways of using His individual “vapors” called “saints.” How He uses His little sweet, beautiful flowers, during their short time on the earth, to be consumed with God’s love, is truly amazing. Many saints seek to show God’s love by showing Enduring Kindness, a common behavior throughout the course of their lives.

It is interesting to look at the life of a rose, or the life of any beautiful flower, in all of it’s unique details. In the extreme, long timeline of everything going on in the world around it, that little flower has a very short life. Their moment of life finally arrives and they bud on their own stem. That bud notices the thorns of life nearby, which represents hazards that we all must deal with. Those thorns, or hazards, exist to bring harm to others. It really doesn’t matter though, for soon, our buds bloom. No matter what type of beautiful, fragrant flower God has made them to be, they don’t waste their short lives sitting on the stem as buds. They bloom! They know their life will be short. They know that this world is ugly, cruel, evil, and in great need of receiving a beautiful, fragrant gift, filled with God’s love, and given to each one who will take this gift. They know that God sent them here to bring something beautiful to a world in need of some beautiful, fragrant love. They bring themselves! So, these sweet, fragrant flowers, whatever the variety, waste no time. They bloom, then, they blossom!

From this point on, they only have moments left in their extremely short lives. It seems that no matter what kind of a day any human who walks by them is having, when they come to these sweet flowers, they stop. They look and smell the fragrance. Soon, they smile; their demeanor changes, and they go on their way as changed individuals, all because of the influence of these sweet flowers.

My dear friend, in this very difficult, cruel world, where do we often go to find some comfort? We go to a flower shop! For in that beautiful flower shop (just like going to find comfort in a church), we find it filled, wall-to-wall, with an entire “congregation” of fragrant sweet-smelling flowers. Each of these flowers are devoting their short lives to showing the beauty of true, sweet, pure, undefiled love, to anyone who they will come into contact with, during their very short lives.



In a brief moment, their leaves fade, their fragrance departs, and their lives are over on this earth. A wind passes through and blows away the fallen petals. There are no physical remains that would show that our sweet flower, that brought so much joy to so many people, even existed. Yet, many do smile, for in their hearts they know that flower existed. It was God who brought it to them. He did so at just the right moment, to touch their hearts with a beautiful fragrance of love, one that they really needed at that time!

It is the same in the lives of saints. God puts each one of us here for a short time. It’s so important that we be like a sweet flower. We need to bud, bloom, and blossom. We need to give off a wonderful fragrance of love to everyone we meet in our lifetime. To show the beauty of God’s love, like a beautiful fragrant flower, and bring God’s love into the life of even one person, would be a wonderful thing to do. For, very soon, the winds of time will blow our petals away, and our vapor of life will be gone forever!

Down through the centuries, there have been many people who have devoted themselves to helping feed the hungry and doing whatever they could to comfort the sick and dying. In every generation, society has been thankful for those who have devoted their lives to these causes. We call them “Good Samaritans.”

What is it that makes these people the way they are? Your author believes that the one ingredient that sets these people apart is that they are consumed with a deep love for the people for whom they are caring. When they help to feed a hungry person, they are not just handing out food. They are spending the valuable time of their own lives with that hungry person. They are showing some form of sincere and compassionate love towards that person, who is not only hungry for food, but also for someone to love them. By doing this, these Good Samaritans are letting the hungry person know that there really is someone in this cold, cruel world, who loves them, and wants to care for them, in whatever way they can.

My dear friend, is this not what Jesus did? When He fed the hungry, He showed them that there really was someone who loved them for who they were. Jesus came to show an Enduring Kindness towards them that would never end. They could trust Him to feed, not only their hungry stomachs, but also their hungry souls.

Ever since that time, the real motivation, for everyone who has devoted their lives to feeding the hungry, has been the ingredient of love for the people themselves. Christians have sought to follow the compassionate footsteps of Jesus by following His example. Those who have followed His footsteps have found that the fruit that their lives produced, in the lives of others, brought glory to God and benefits to many.