Choir Notes

Where Flowers Bloom, So Does Hope
From Music and the Spoken Word
Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4159

Flowers speak to our souls. Instinctively, children pick them; sweethearts give and receive them; poets write about them; and with much anticipation, everyone waits for them to bloom. Somehow they tell of love, of beauty, and of hope in a way that nothing else does.

In every culture, in every corner of the world, flowers are the most beautiful of plants. They are symbols alive with meaning. In some settings they are peace offerings; in others, they are tokens of love; at various times in various places, they serve as souvenirs, memorials, and tributes. They tell stories, convey feelings, and bring people together.

Every year in early summer, residents of a small city wait for wild poppies to bloom on the nearby foothills. For as long as the old-timers can remember, the poppies have decorated their hillside with radiant splashes of red and orange. Children go with parents and grandparents—who remember going with their parents—to see the poppies. They tell their young ones about war-torn times when poppies became symbols of remembrance and peace. Somehow the poppies are more than pretty flowers; they are emblems of continuity, evidence of life’s goodness and promise.

Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, is often remembered for her love of flowers. Roadsides across the country are beautiful today because of her efforts to plant wildflowers along highways. Mrs. Johnson liked to say, “Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

If something as delicate and beautiful as a flower can grow out of the hard, cold soil, then what else might be possible? We all need the hope that flowers embody. Flowers help us remember the unseen potential in ourselves, in those we love, and in the world around us. Indeed, where flowers bloom, so does hope.