Recently we returned to our home in Port-au-Prince after six weeks. Since coming to Haiti eight years ago, we have amassed a considerable number of plants which are so readily available here as a hobby. While I was poking around our garden, I found this unexpected flower budding out of one of our many tropical plants. I was confused because I know this particular plant sends out stalks of tiny white flowers, but only after it is three or four years old (the plant pictured is only one or two years old). When I looked closer, I realized that the flower was a rose! It turns out that a slender stalk of a nearby rose plant had stealthily wound itself around its larger, leafier neighbor and sent out one small bloom that matched the variegated color of its leaves. The beauty of Haiti often surprises those who have preconceptions of the country as little more than a dilapidated and over-populated dust-pan. So also, the beauty of God's creation often surprises us in our cynical and jaded moments. We are reminded that despite the deprivations we unleash on ourselves, our neighbors and our surroundings, the loving hand of our heavenly Father dispenses grace in unexpected and unforeseen places. This is the kind of discernment we need to live with joy in our world, whether it be Haiti or Hawaii!
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