X Bouquets of Hope – Women’s Devotional

This Book Is a Treasury of Stories Some are stories of blessing.

A woman is instantaneously healed from acute diverticulitis three hours prior to the operation. Rice mysteriously multiplies to feed a multitude. A poor woman gives her grocery money to a beggar, then returns home to find the exact amount lying on her floor. As we share their joy, our faith is renewed. Some are stories of pain. A woman’s athletic son becomes a quadriplegic. A mother, dying of cancer, prepares a “life instruction book” to guide her children after her death. Others battle irrational fears and botched operations. As we share their burdens our own seems lighter. Each story is a flower from God’s garden of love. One by one they fill the heart with a bouquet of hope, until the wafting fragrance permeates the life with the sweet aroma of grace. Come each day to God’s garden. Pick a flower. You are God’s daughter. All this beauty is yours. This volume is a United Nations of faith. Written by one of the largest international teams of authors of any book ever published, it foreshadows the glorious future when the redeemed of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, take their place in the kingdom of God. A Message from Ardis Stenbakken: Don’t you just love to receive a bouquet-an arrangement from someone you care about, perhaps for whom you have done nothing special? Some of the best come from little children, their grubby hands tightly clutching freshly plucked flowers from the neighbor’s garden, offered with a big smile and lots of love. My husband once gave me a corsage of dandelions. Through the years he has given me a real bouquet almost every Friday. Even during the year he was in Vietnam he arranged for a florist to deliver something to me every week. Sometimes it was just a rose, sometimes a whole arrangement, but it always reminded me of his love. Bouquets mean a lot to me. Did you ever think of the world around you as a bouquet, a love gift from God? Just look at the trees, the coloured hillsides, the green of the riverbanks, the delicate tints of the clouds, the flowers that thrive among rocks. God sends us constant reminders of His love. Bouquets can be made of more than flowers. There can be bouquets of love, nosegays of sincere appreciation, colourful arrangements of affirmation. Sometimes the special thing about a bouquet is simply its presence, its beauty and perfume. We can be a bouquet for a friend who needs us. We can brighten the day for those who hurry past, never knowing that our smile, our encouraging word, is making a difference on life’s way. As I meet women around the world I see them as bouquets. Wouldn’t bouquets be boring if all the flowers were the same shape, the same colour, filling the air with exactly the same fragrance? The God who made all the lovely flowers and greens to complement them also made us, too-all different, all special, each one unique and perfect in her own setting.

The women, the experiences, the encounters with God in this book are a precious bouquet. Some think their flower is faded. Some have been plucked in pain. Some have been thrust into arrangements they did not choose. But all have survived, all have shone, and all have shared.

Open these pages and enjoy a few moments of fragrance from heaven.