By Ashlie Miller

If you are giving or receiving flowers this Valentine’s Day, roses are likely to be the star of the bouquet. Perhaps there are tulips, carnations, or even lilies. When did you give or receive your first rose? Was it a single rose or a bouquet? Was it well received?

I can remember the first dozen roses I received. It was intended for Valentine’s Day, though I received it a day later. It was not from a beau or someone I wanted to express interest in me. A boy at my church sent them to my school, a Christian school for elementary to high school grades. The florist delivered my flowers to the elementary wing of the school — to a little girl in kindergarten with the same name as me. I learned about it because her father called my house that evening asking if I knew someone with the sender’s name and if he would have sent me roses. In mortification, I wanted to slam the phone! Luckily, this timid high schooler dodged the bullet of blushing red upon receiving roses at my high school in front of my classmates. Still, I did not want to face this boy at church or even tell him thank you. I was not thankful. I was pretty rotten.

Maybe I would live through this embarrassment and one day forget it all. Fast forward two years later — my senior year. I finally have a boyfriend who shows up on Valentine’s at my school because their team was playing my school in basketball. Again, I receive roses, assuming they are from this first boyfriend. I’m wrong. It’s the same young man from my church (he is a young man at that point — 18 years old). I am not angry this time. I’m not as embarrassed. I even find it a bit comical, but I do not reveal the gift to my boyfriend.

You can probably guess what happens — a year later, I am dating the serial rose giver. I finally tell this fellow that roses are not even my favorite flower. Sunflowers are my botanical of choice. Poor but desperately in love, this young man orders sunflowers in February and has them delivered to me while he is living in another state. Bear in mind this was over 25 years ago. Flowers came from local florists — even sunflowers. You can imagine the cost of this delivery in the middle of winter! What a statement!

I am not saying that the sunflowers are what won me over and made me his wife, but it certainly didn’t hurt. He had found the gift that was precious to me — what uniquely made me smile. I didn’t ask for or expect it from him, but he found the way to my heart. He had taken the time to get to know me.

I want my worship and love for God to reflect that intimacy — spending time with Him regularly, delighting in getting to know Him better each passing day, and understanding my identity in Christ better. I desire my worship to be uniquely from me, not an attempt to replicate what everyone else around me is doing. 

In our intimate, regular fellowship with God, we discover He also knows what delights our hearts. Although there is common grace and gifts that are good for us all, what a loving, adoring Lord who seeks to display His presence in our lives with gifts customized precisely for us.

Ashlie Miller is married to her husband, who often brings her sunflowers and sometimes roses but always brings her delight in his gifts. He’s raising their sons and daughter to do much of the same. You may email Ashlie at mrs.ashliemiller@gmail.com.