Monday, October 19, 2026
the wellbeing gift of springtime flowers
I was leading worship on Sunday. The lectionary reading from Isaiah 35:6 celebrated water in the wilderness. Since, it’s spring in Aotearoa New Zealand and our gardens are blooming, during the week people were emailed and invited to bring a favourite spring flower. It might be an actual flower. It might be the name of a flower that’s a favourite. I chose All thing Bright and beautiful and hymn that celebrated creation. It was lovely to have people arrive with colour and scent and have them placed carefully on the communion table.
Several post-service conversations suggested elements of well-being were present for people through the practise of picking springtime flowers.
One person commented that their favourite spring flower wasn’t abundant but they realised as they wandered the garden looking that there was beauty they hadn’t been aware of. The act of looking made them more aware of the beauty of their home.
Another person picked up some wild flowers. As they placed them, they commented they had never noticed the stamens on the inside. A different angle and the act of picking resulted in a new awareness of creation’s complexity and beauty.
The heart of Jesus’ ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount includes the invitation to consider the flowers (Matthew 6:28, 30). Jesus suggests that as we reflect on how flowers grow, we find resources that nurture faith and trust. The words of Jesus resonate with the findings of scholars who study Christian practices and the pyschology of character formation.
Adele Calhoun, in her wonderful book on spiritual disciplines describes the practice of mindfulness, which she defines as living “wholeheartedly in the present moment, alert to God and without judgement” (Adele Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, IVP, 2015, 15). Joanne Collicutt defines Christ-centred mindfulness as a way of looking at the world, of seeing “heaven in ordinary” things and living like Christ, in the present moment, alert to signs of God (Joanne Collicutt, The Psychology of Christian Character Formation, SCM, 2015, 125).
On Sunday, picking flowers to bring to church had produced well-being benefits. Without realising it, people found themselves practising mindfulness in the daily world all around them.
)
