Careful Tending

I drove up to campus the other day, expecting to mind my own business and get some work done. I had seen these leftover Easter lilies the other day, but didn’t do anything about them, as usual, my mind preoccupied with things “more important” than watering dying plants in the Phoenix sun. As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw a woman, pushing a stroller filled to the brim with her belongings, using the last bit of her water to cultivate the beauty of these dying plants. I couldn’t help but watch her carefully tending to them like they were her own and then continue on her way as if her work for the day was done.

I had asked Jesus earlier in the day to help me see South Scottsdale the way that he sees South Scottsdale. To give me an imagination for what even the littlest mustard seed of the Kingdom of God would look like sprouting here and to give me eyes to see it in my midst.

I expect to see more as I pray for eyes to see, but this was yesterday’s mustard seed sprouting: a woman, who by all the world’s standards should be cast aside just like this dying plant, saw these plants and took the time to help bring them back to life. These plants that I had walked right past because I had no use for them and who cared because they didn’t belong to me and were dying anyway, she saw and sacrificed for them.

I have often said that the slabs of concrete on this campus are sacred spaces. Not because nicely dressed people show up for 1 hour on a Sunday morning, but because these slabs are places of respite, safety, learning and storytelling for some of the most marginalized in our community and for me. It is in this space that the presence of Jesus is most acute. Through every conversation, every story, every water bottle and every tear, I learn a little bit more about this Jesus that I have followed almost my whole life. The Jesus that cares about flourishing lilies, because they remind us that we are not cast aside and forgotten, but invited into a life of being seen and trusting that the God who sees us will provide all the things we need. And that as we live into this seeing Kingdom Life, we will start to see the way that He sees and love the way He loves.