The flower

Dedicated to my sister ~ The beauty who never thought she was beautiful enough. Enjoy.

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There was once a flower. He was sad. He didn't think he was beautiful. He always thought that the other flowers were much brighter, much more colorful and much, much greater than he was. He was so upset he drifted further and further away from the other flowers. Soon, he became lonely and ridden with sorrow and hopelessness.

You see, the problem was not that he was an ugly flower. Far from it, in fact. He thought that to be beautiful, he had to be like all the other flowers who he thought were beautiful. He couldn't see the beauty in himself. What he really needed, was someone to tell him that he was beautiful.

While the flower drifted away from his family and friends, he became more and more lost and hopeless.  He became angry with himself. He became arrogant, thinking that he is better off by himself. He flung off the flowers who tried to help him, and hurt those who were closest to him.

Then the flower's journey got worse. He wandered away from the safety of the flowers and towards a wasteland filled with weeds. The weeds were cruel and unforgiving. There was no beauty to be found amongst the weeds. But the flower was determined to prove himself. He soon became greedy and selfish and worst of all, ambitious. He grew wild and lost his values- love, kindness, gratitude and forgiveness. This is especially sad because you see, flowers are not made for this kind of environment. Flowers are delicate and precious things, and most importantly, beautiful. They cannot last long living like this. The poor flower probably knew this deep inside but he was already stuck. He was clueless as to how to get out, and at that point, he already thought he was one with the weeds.

From above, the God watched in grief. He knew the flower was suffering badly, however, God trusted in the good of the flower to shine through these dark times. He sincerely thought the flower could get out. Several times, he sent some of his bees to the flower to offer encouragement and hope.

Then it went horribly wrong. The flower, by now, lost all sight of light and beauty. He was stuck in a dark, dark corner. He felt lonely again, but what was worse is that no one tried to help him. He was all alone in a horrible place where no one was kind enough to lend him a helping hand. He forgot about God, and beauty. He could not see any salvation.

So he unrooted himself. It was a dark night indeed. In pain and anguish, he flung himself off the soil and tore all his roots.

God was heartbroken. The flower was so badly hurt. In an instant, God flew by the flower's side, barely breathing; a fragile, vulnerable mess.

"My dear flower!" God cried. He could not put his grief into words. God was in pain because he loved the flower so much. God cried a thousand tears for every ounce of pain the flower was in.

He sheltered the vulnerable flower and slowly carried him and laid him to rest on some soft grass. There, he properly examined the flower's wounds. Tears streamed from God's eyes. That night was also a night of agony for God. God laid by the flower's side the whole night as he slept.

For several days, the flower did not wake up. God stayed by his side and circled where the flower lay, making the grass grow and shining soft light onto the sad carnage of a flower that lay below him. The sun rose and set; days passed. The flower woke up a week later. He felt so comfortable to be lying on the soft grass, surrounded by so much beauty, peace and quiet. God watched on lovingly as the flower opened his eyes and looked into the sunlight. The flower felt safe, and peaceful, but he was so hurt. God felt heavy with sorrow. But the flower was safe now, and he had God to protect him.

"I'm so sorry," whispered God. "It was not meant to be this way. None of this was supposed to happen." The flower cried. He was in so much pain. God's tears dropped down onto the flower, for he loved him so much. None of this was meant to happen. It was never meant to turn out like that. Life was good, and the flower was so, so beautiful. It broke God's heart to see something so wrong happen. It especially broke God's heart to know that one of his beautiful creations thought he was not beautiful. How can the flower not be beautiful? God was heartbroken.

God said, "My beautiful flower, you must never feel invaluable again. You must never compare yourself to the other flowers again. Because value cannot be compared. Once you have value, you are infinitely valuable. Never try to compare things that are equally beautiful again, because you can't. How can you say who is more valuable? How can you judge value?"

It was that day that the flower learnt an important life lesson. Value cannot be compared. Value is value; you either have it or you don't. It is binary. Things with value are completely valuable, and they cannot be compared.

It was a happy ending for the flower. He grew to love his life and treasure his friends and family. He began to appreciate the beauty of life and believed in miracles again. He tried his best to not lose sight of God, for God guided him and showed him the light in everything. More importantly, the flower was never alone again. He was so, so loved, and never again did he compare himself to anyone else.