That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. — Romans 8:18-21

I absolutely adore gardenias. In this little glass bowl sits four gardenias from my own bushes. I've tried to grow them for years in three states and one foreign country and never had success until now in California. I smell the fragrance of these delicate creamy white flowers and I find myself in awe.

Though God's Word tell us even His creation waits for Christ's return and is held back, I smell these flowers, experience the intense satisfaction and pleasure they bring me, and yet I am amazed to think this is how they exist in their "held-back state."

I believe God is in every little detail as much as He's in the big stuff. God's fingerprint is as much on these flower petals as they are on the Grand Canyon. God didn't have to create the gardenia. He didn't have to create lush colors, odors, and tastes in our world. But He did. For us.

I also believe God knew I, Dineen Miller, would love the smell of gardenias when He created them. What was God creating when He was thinking of you?

Oh, the magnitude of our God! If he can speak to our hearts through the details, He can certainly use those details to speak to our unbelieving spouses. I am praying for it!

Praying and believing,
Dineen