Flowers in the Chapel

By Sarah M.  –  Missionary in Ecuador

There is a lot of time and effort put into keeping the chapel nice. At least once a week it is swept and mopped and we are often changing out the candles and altar linens. Additionally, and maybe surprisingly, every month we buy flowers to put in front of the tabernacle in our chapel. It is very rare to find someone with flowers where we live and we have to go pretty far to find a store that sells them. I felt strange because no one else close to where we live has the ability to buy flowers for their houses. 

However, after getting to know some of our friends in our neighborhood, my opinions on these flowers have changed. During my time in Ecuador, I have been consistently struck by the freedom our friends have to give. The first example that comes to mind is our friend, Señora José. Señora José has been a friend of our mission for many years now and is very kind as well as famed for her infectious laugh. She is always causing us to laugh along with her even when we don’t understand her jokes (which is often). Señora José is also one of our friends that lives in extreme poverty with hardly any possessions other than her 6 cats and her house is what you would imagine when you think of a shack. However, the times that we go to visit her she gives to us whatever she has and always without concern. As soon as we arrive at the door, she greets us with excitement and it seems her only response upon seeing us is to give. When we walk through the door she quickly searches for the best of her plastic chairs and makes us wait until she can find them. Most of them are broken in some way, but she offers us the best ones and gives herself the most broken one. Then she offers us some kind of fruit or coca cola. She never seems to be worried about the little food that she has; she just gives to us open-handedly.

I have seen so many different bouquets of flowers in our chapel during my time here, all of them I think you could say are very extravagant considering the environment where we live. However, it is exactly this extravagance and unnecessariness that makes them such a gift. And when I think about it, what a small gift really to adore Christ living in the tabernacle. I now feel very grateful for these flowers and for the friends here that have loved me and given me a small glimpse of the extravagant love that Christ has for us.