The thing about flowers and bees is that flowers don’t do anything to draw the bees to them, besides being. Simply their presence offers life-giving nutrients.
Sitting in our beloved Spare ‘Oom in Romania, bright and vibrant Emily spoke this over my team just days before embarking on the adventures of month three.
The other thing about flowers and bees is that flowers need bees in order to keep producing life, to keep spreading what they have to give this earth.
Fast forward to the second Sunday of our time in Bulgaria. It’s been a long day and I’m tired, but I am standing in a church pew, overwhelmed and in awe that my teammates and I just walked into this church, having no idea what to expect and were blessed by and incredible sermon by a guest speaker in English, no less. Some of my teammates are speaking with the pastor of the church, setting up a meeting for the coming week to discuss future partnership with AIM. I am simply waiting for the appointment to be set so we can make the walk home and get some much needed rest, when from my right I hear “HELLO!” I turn, quickly because if English is being spoken it’s probably to one of us, and find myself in the middle of a welcoming embrace. Surprised and confused, I immediately begin to wrack my brain for how I might know this young woman whose arms were just wrapped around me. I come up short, but I begin to talk to her, unaware that I am meeting the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.
She speaks three languages – German, Bulgarian, and English – and switches between them without notice. She is quick to introduce me to her friends – she has more than anyone I know – each introduced as her “beautiful friend,” such that I truly believes that she believes each to be the most beautiful human on this earth. Minutes later she asks if I am her beautiful friend. When I say yes, honored to be in the company of those I’ve met, she cannot contain her excitement as she squeals and embraces me yet again.
As the evening continues, my teammates and I are invited into a room behind the sanctuary to share delicious Bulgarian delicacies. We share the space and swap names and stories with the Canadians, Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, and Bulgarians who received the invite as well.
It’s truly getting late now. I’m thankful for the bready treats because it’s well past dinnertime and almost past bedtime. I talk with many but find my way back to my new friend.
I find her surrounded by my teammates, drawing them in with the beauty that exudes from her very soul. Each teammate holds a flower, given by their new friend. It’s been a long evening, but she has yet to cease beholding beauty. She declares beauty of all things great and small, showing her new friends picture after picture, exclaiming with genuine delight the beauty of each thing beheld. When she’s through showing all she has to show, she joyfully starts over, having lost none of the wonder with which she admires the beauty before her.
Overcome by her joy and beauty after yet another exclamation that we are her beautiful friends, I tell her, “YOU’RE a beautiful friend!”
As emphatically and truly as she declared our beauty, she exclaims, “Yes!” No shying away from the compliment, no doubt that it is untrue or not genuine, and certainly no arrogance – only acceptance in full of the truth claimed over her and radiating from her.
Impressed by her ability to speak three languages and in awe of her capacity to love so many so fully I tell her, “You’re amazing!”
Her already huge smile bursts into laughter. “Yes!” she exclaims again. None of the “no, you are” game I too often like to play. No refusal of the gift of truth, only a receiving as genuine as her giving.
Oh, how humbling to be in the presence of one who epitomizes humility – one who knows fully the beauty of the Lord and the magnificence of all he’s made, knows just as well that she too belongs to that magnificence, and invites all others to believe that of themselves as well.
Our new friend’s name is Deborah, meaning “bee.” Oh, how Deborah came and buzzed all about us, bringing exactly what we needed to keep giving life and spreading what life we had to offer right to those planted in Burgas.
Given that my team was tasked with finding these people this month, Deborah was exactly who we needed to continue on. She led us first to her parents, a Bulgarian and German missionary couple, who loved us better than you could ever think someone you met days earlier could love, but who needed our encouragement as well. Her parents led us to a prayer meeting they host that happens but twice a year. The meeting brought us to a family who head the Youth With a Mission base, longing for more ministry partnerships, living in a city outside of Burgas that we happened to be heading to that Sunday.
The thing about flowers and bees is that the life and light that flowers bring are often appreciated, but the truth is that flowers couldn’t continue to bring life and light if it weren’t for the humble bee.
Because every beautiful friend must be in a photo. And yes, I do wear that sweater 6/7 days
