Those of you who have been following our story since the beginning (or if you've just had a good look around our website) will be aware of the importance of camels to our story, but you might have missed the part that tulips also play (see Time2 Talk Camels).
When last year, we discovered that there was a World Camel Day (get 22 June in your diary now so you don't miss out!), we decided to investigate the humble tulip to see if it was recognised and we found that International Tulip Day is held on the 3rd Saturday in January (16th this year), so we put it into our diary and thought that it would be a good focal point to encourage our supporters to pray for Time2. We shared the information with our prayer partners at the beginning of January and then posted on Facebook and Instagram about it a couple of days in advance.
As part of our daily exercise, we walk past a large local farm shop, so on Friday, we popped in with the intention of buying a bunch of tulips. We were shocked to find no flowers, apart from about 6 tiny bunches of daffodils. When I enquired, I was told that flowers aren't really essential! (I know that could be the next debate, but let's leave it for now.) We haven't been venturing into supermarkets etc recently, as we are trying to follow Government guidelines and not expose ourselves to crowds, so we resigned ourselves to not being able to have any tulips this year! We'd also seen online, that the usual celebrations in Amsterdam had been cancelled due to Covid, normally they take over a park and have 200,000+ tulips displayed by colours, all in full bloom and complete with their bulbs that anyone is able to go and help themselves to. We are definitely adding this to our bucket list!
On Friday night, we prayed that despite the obvious setback, that somehow we'd still be able to celebrate and remember God's promises to us with a tulip. Imagine our surprise, when on Saturday morning we heard a knock on our front door and a postman was standing there with a large cardboard box, as we weren't expecting anything. Inside the box were about 20 tulips, complete with their bulbs. (For those of you who follow us on social media, you may have seen the pictures we shared on Saturday.) What an answer to prayer! As we sat there arranging them in vases (it's surprising how much space the bulbs take up in a vase!), we were reminded of God's faithfulness, that all His promises are Yes & Amen (2 Corinthians 1:20 “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”)
The person who'd ordered them for us, had seen our Instagram post and decided to order them for us as a surprise. The fact that they arrived in bud, with the bulbs attached was amazing - apparently they last longer and after the flowers die off, you can cut the bulbs off and plant them ready for next year.
Sitting writing this blog, I felt guilty that our faith is so small at times, that God has to keep giving us little reminders and encouragements along the way, but then I thought that's what parents often do, to make times of waiting more bearable. I also believe that this is also an encouragement to others who are reading this, that God often gives us little milestones along the way, so that when we look back, we are able to see how far we have come. And the fact that the tulips came with their bulbs still attached, I believe is speaking to us of an ongoing blessing, that will continue to grow over the years. We believe that God is saying 'Yes & Amen' to His promises for Time2 and we will continue to press forward believing it.
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