Barren Blooms of Beauty

We made the trek to Hana on Friday.

This typically three-hour-one-way car journey and back along Route 360 is almost always one of my most treasured days spent on each of our trips to Maui. The scenery is impossibly stunning: a truly untamed tropical rainforest liberally accented with raging waterfalls over 1000 foot cliffs into emerald pools, native and secluded black sand beaches, Jurassic Park Plants (as I call them) with leaves more than seven feet wide and flowers the colors of lifesavers candy. It overwhelms the senses to such a degree that I almost inevitably give up taking photos near midday. Not out of frustration, but a sense of respect that accompanies the realization that no amount of still photography, videography, or other means of trying to capture the reality which is Hana is even remotely effective at doing it justice. It is simply indescribably breathtaking.

The actual road that leads to Hana, however, is daunting and a bit risky. Along the smidgen longer than sixty-mile journey, there are more than 600 (six HUNDRED) hairpin turns and 62 one-lane bridges, always teetering precariously over a steep waterfall or unprotected rugged cliff leading straight down to the ocean below. Not a forgiving driving course, and certainly not suited for anxious drivers. They sell T-shirts here that read, "I survived the road to Hana". We bought one after our first journey eight years ago. Hey ~ don't snicker. If you drive to and from Hana intact, you deserve the shirt. And a very cold drink (Dr. Pepper, anyone?)

Most of this road has been carved naturally out of once molten lava rock which forms the structure of the island. And it is this lava rock ~ this unforgiving, most untenable substance ~ that miraculously gives rise to an incredible bounty of botanical wonder that is the rainforest I love so. On Friday, as we sat patiently yielding to an oncoming car passing over a narrow, one-lane bridge ahead of us, I took special note of an intensely vibrant purple-violet bloom just outside my window. This fascinating specimen was growing straight out of sheer lava which formed the edge of the cliff beside us. No bush, no tree, no soil ~ nothing supporting it. Just this gorgeous flower, growing straight up out of the lava, and blooming with abundantly fragrant, prehistoric looking purple petals.

From barren lava sprang this amazing blooming flower. It seems so unlikely, and yet it IS.

This flower experience merged meaningfully into an ongoing tangle of thoughts I've been entertaining. With the backdrop of quite possibly the most divinely beautiful place on this planet, I'm finding myself wondering WHY God has me here at this very moment. And what He intends for me. And how He can use me despite myself? The nature of these ponderings is not limited to this finite holiday period on Maui. This is an open-ended conversation I have had with myself since before I even thought to keep track. It has become part of my routine examination of my life for signs of its usefulness and worthiness to God and to others. I seek so ardently to live life at 'maximum capacity' ~ to give of myself entirely in the places and with the people who are divinely intended recipients. I struggle when inevitably encounter my own failings, flaws, and limitations. I pray continually for grace and pliable flexibility when the plans God has for me so obviously contradict my grand scheme of how my life is to be best spent upon this earth. I am getting better at it.

Well, inconsistently better, at least.

Thankfully, borrowed wisdom and courage now often overtakes the temptation to allow my nagging fears of inadequacy stall me into inertia. And increasingly, utter faith triumphs over the once tempting utter despair that I am too ill equipped and ill prepared to even attempt the tasks He so often thrusts me headlong into. I am coming to understand that neither preparation, confidence, or perfection is necessary to be who God has made me to be, and to step up when He clearly calls me to achieve something so clearly beyond my capacity. All that is necessary is a listening ear and a willing heart.

This concept was so beautifully for me as we drove along the Hana coastline of this idyllic island.

Beauty, when it is of God, can be born and thrive anywhere, like an enormously lovely flower blooming straight out of a craggly lava rock. And God can use simple elements, like people and plants, to illustrate His glory, love, and perfection, even when they are the least likely candidates, far from perfect themselves, and often amidst deeply inhospitable surroundings.

So often I am gravely limited by my perception of myself as I grapple with finding sure footing on barren lava in my own life. Without benefit of faith, it would seem hopelessly finite ~ a struggle for suvival in an untenable environment, more aware of my flaws than my potential. But faith reveals the unlikely truth that, out of nothing but barren lava, a beautiful flower can thrive. Surely we can be reassured that nothing can limit our ability to bloom wherever God plants us, as long as we are listening to Him with willing hearts of faith. And it is with that same faith that I trust that my life is where He means it to be right now. Even though I sometimes cannot fathom what He is doing or why, I take it on faith that God is transforming the vastly flawed person I am into something glorious for His purpose. Something miraculous ~ far and away beyond anything I could ever imagine myself to be. He can create beauty from even the most barren beginnings. If only our hearts are willing to bloom wherever we are planted.