Flowers

Just now I was reading to my daughter out of a book called Rhymes Around the World. As the title implies, it contains poems from all different countries and cultures: France, Iran, England, Poland, Japan, etc. In this book I came across a line in a verse from Korea that I found to be quite poignant. It is called Wind Last Night.

Wind last night blew down
A gardenful of peach blossoms.
A boy with a broom
Is starting to sweep them up.

Fallen flowers are flowers still,
Don't brush them away.

The last couple of lines stuck out to me and caused me to stop and think. At first I wasn't sure what was so significant about those words.

Then I realized, we are the flowers.

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;" D&C 18:10

It's easy to say that we are all loved and special to God, but sometimes it can be much more difficult to feel it. Sometimes we struggle to feel that we are of value, and sometimes the struggle is to see the worth of others. Sometimes both. It is key to our spiritual development that we come to fully understand not only how Heavenly Father feels about us, but also the way he loves and sees the value in others.

Why can this be so difficult? Because we sin. We are imperfect, and it begs the question, can a perfect being like God really see worth in imperfection?

Yes!

Because we are the flowers. We have fallen, and we may have become soiled. But we are still the beautiful flowers that God made, and He loves us still. The act of sinning does not make us any less God's beloved children, just as falling to the ground did not turn the flowers into something different.

It's especially important for us to remember this fact when we interact with those who are struggling or have made mistakes. Don't criticize or judge, and "Don't brush them away." Love them the way God loves them. This is charity, being able to see them the way God does, full of infinite worth and potential.