"Don't you think that daisies are the friendliest flower?"

Our apartment has a little dining nook that used to be a back porch. I, for one, wish that it were still a back porch because there is nothing I love more than laying on back porches and admiring the stars. Now it is a useless room with a dining table that is never used. The four of us in this apartment aren’t exactly gourmet chefs and if we do cook something, chances are it has been eaten within five steps of the microwave. We never make it to the dining room table.

However, Sarah and Michael bought me some lovely flowers for my birthday and that has made the dining room much more inviting. I’ve found myself straying in there with a book or notebook to enjoy my purple and yellow companions. I don’t know much about flowers except that I like them. I can’t ever remember the names. I know daisies, roses and tulips, but after that I’m lost. I’m content knowing God designed them creatively to bring Himself pleasure. I’m like that with stars too. Some people want to know everything there is to know about space and planets. They want to know how stars are composed, their temperatures, how far they are from earth…I just like knowing that Carli, Jake, Taylor, Lori and I can lay on the sidewalk on a clear night and marvel at them. I’ll leave all the science part to Jake and Louie Giglio.

Tonight my flowers and a cup of hot chocolate accompanied me through the book of Hosea. I questioned my “ignorance is bliss” axiom when I read, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” I thought to myself that maybe I should pick up a couple of Better Homes and Gardens to brush up on my flower skills. (Carnations and camellias always throw me for a loop.) Clearly knowledge is something God values an awful lot if Israel was perishing for their rejection of it. I thought of all the things I cram my head with in the race for knowledge... Gosh, there is so much pressure just to know…everything. But God values a slightly different kind of knowledge that can be found in the Economist. A couple verses down I learned what he meant. “Because you have rejected knowledge…since you have forgotten the law of your God…because they have stopped giving heed to the LORD…the people without understanding are ruined.” Knowledge that God values can be found in the pages of Deuteronomy: “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up…” That is the kind of knowledge I want to build on. I guess it's alright if I can't tell you the latin names of the flowers on my dining room table. However, I do need to apply myself to get a better understanding of the things that God wants me to learn.

“For the LORD gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6