Once every day I shall stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are.

Clyde Kilby, professor of English at Wheaton College

We have had so much rain in California and snow in the mountains that the flooding has caused great damage to low-lying areas and trapped others in mountainous areas, collapsing roofs under piles of snow and trapping people so that emergency workers have to get them food, water and their medications. But the other side of this is that we’ve been in a severe drought for over seven years where lakes and reservoirs have been only a third full and dropping. Water was getting scarce. With all this water that has been falling from the sky, it has caused damage for some, but overall, the lakes and rivers are teaming again. It’s hard to see some people suffer, except that the need for water is so great. Severe weather causes hardship, but it also brings relief. And in some cases, it can bring great beauty.

This will be a remarkable years for wildflowers in California because of all the rain. When Chandler and I drove to the desert communities east of Los Angeles to view the Vietnam War Memorial, we passed fields and mountainsides painted with yellow and orange poppies. Poppies are plentiful in California anyway — the poppy is the official flower of California — but this year even more so. In addition, the heavy rains have woken up strains of wildflowers long dormant that only bloom when there has been an unusually wet winter such as we have had this year. Chandler and I are planning a trip soon to visit some of the most plentiful sightings of wildflowers this year. This is a unique opportunity to see what is mainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

To see a field awash in color is to bring praise to the Creator in just the appreciation of it. As Clyde Kilby wrote, “I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are.” We hope to notice the wildflowers are there and rejoice in their beauty. In some cases, because they are in the wilderness and hard too access, only God can see them. And don’t you think He notices and revels in their beauty?