In her 1997 book Truly the Community, Marva Dawn relates the story of a child trying to open a flower bud. As a result of his sincere – though misguided – efforts, the blossom falls apart in his hands. Exasperated, he queries his mother, ‘Why does the bud fall apart when I try to open it, but when God opens it the flower is beautiful?’ Lacking assistance from his (speechless) mother, he reaches his own conclusion: ‘Oh, I know! When God opens a flower, he opens it up from the inside.’

No matter how hard we try to change an individual or community from the outside, unless the change is also driven from within it is ultimately doomed to failure. The Apostle Paul evidently knew this, instructing the Christians in Rome: ‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Rom. 12:2). Few things in this world are more difficult to change than a closed mind, and that is an accurate description of all who are not in Christ. In fact, Paul implies that this kind of transformation requires an act of God, instructing that the Romans must ‘be transformed’, not that they ‘transform themselves’.

Yet, when such a renewal does occur its effects are felt in every area of life – the way we think, speak and act in every circumstance. For it is not just any old mind that God gives us; the Apostle says in another place that ‘we have the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor. 2:16).

When God opens a flower, he opens it from the inside… and it is beautiful indeed!