Perceptions #46

"WOULD ROSES COST A LOT?"

by Morris Thurman

Henry Penn, the Boston florist who originated the slogan, "Say It With Flowers," told how one morning two boys and a girl came into his floral shop and said: "We're the committee and we would like some nice yellow flowers, sir. Do you have any yellow flowers? He would like them better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater."

"Are they for a funeral?" asked Penn.

The children nodded yes and kept back the tears. "She's his sister," one of the boys explained. "He was a good kid, a truck yesterday - we were playing in the street - we saw it happen."

Then the other boy added, "Us kids took up a collection. We got 18 cents -would roses cost a lot, mister. Yellow roses?"

Touched by the story of the tragedy and the loyalty of the kids, Henry Penn replied, "I have some nice yellow roses here that I am selling for 18 cents a dozen just this morning." The sympathetic florist accepted the 18 cents and the committee carried away the flowers they had chosen. Said Penn, "I felt uplifted for days. I had been given the inexpressible privilege of sharing something."

We, too, have that inexpressible privilege of sharing. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Corinthians 4:7). "We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us" (II Corinthians 5:20). To share the glorious "Good News" of Salvation in Christ. "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." We want all to know "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7). In love and compassion, we share the knowledge of Christ.

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