Black Joy SERIES: Flower Child

In our ongoing series to celebrate local Black voices beyond Black History Month, we’re featuring our very own Trainee and YWAM School of Urban Leadership student, Kayla Wren. Join us as she takes us through the garden and into the fullness and abundance of God’s Presence as she showcases her artistry through creative expression.

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Every Tuesday was Garden day. One day I was asked to plant sunflowers in the garden of a restaurant that I served at. I know I’m a girl from the south but I’ve never truly gardened before, so this was a new experience for me. After planting sunflowers week by week, they grew and grew, but one particular sunflower grew bigger than all the rest. The sunflower was in the strawberry bed. Every day I could go to the garden, I made it a point to sing to the sunflower….

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts
His Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” 

I sang that song to the sunflower every day I could, it sprouted so big other flowers grew on its branches. I never want to forget the child-like faith I had on those days, knowing that my song of worship to God was heard by Him to make that flower grow. I remember saying over and over again “ I want this flower to be bigger than me.” And sure enough it did. Sadly because of the weight and San Francisco winds it fell over..but I will never forget the beauty of seeing what faith can do.

For someone like me that had no gardening experience…
to see something so magnificent, that showed me the beauty of child-like faith…
BUT also showed me the privilege of having hope in something outside of my own ability.

To know that the crown that I carry daily is not because of what I can do but who I serve.

The beauty of that experience with the sunflower was not because I had great gardening experience but because I had full faith in God and that even Creation worships Him.

For a black woman this celebration of the little things gives me joy, because this is an experience that can never be boxed up with a black or social understanding of culture. Here I was just a little girl with the high hopes that her Father in heaven would provide something beautiful for her, not because of blackness or womanhood, but because of His love for me.

This is the definition of black joy, the ability to just Be Black Be Hopeful and Be Happy without apologizing. It’s to know that despite all that I can still experience life like this.

I can be a girl in a garden with high hopes that reach beyond expectation,
I can find fulfillment and hope in little without the fear of it being taken.
For everyday I hope for moments like this one to be moved by a flower,
and be reminded that just like the plants in the ground…

I have the right and privilege to rejoice and to worship and to have high hopes that touch the sky with beauty.
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Flower Child by Kayla Wren

Am I mad to be mad for you
To wonder wild when you are not close by

Am I to be wild to you
To run rapid towards water
Because the wilderness is so dry

Am I not to be reckless
To not strive forward
To do what it takes to survive

Or should I grow colder
Weary weeping
Lay asleep until it’s my time to die

For I am not built to walk slowly
Nor to ponder
Or stay in line

With my belly to the altar
Tainted anguish
Carries me to the light

For it is my Father
In His presence
I am watered
I am satisfied

For the lady in the dark
For the girl lost on the swing
For the mother by the faucet
Battling false defeat

For the King has risen
Like a dove He gives you His wings
He has restored you
He is the knower of all things

“Now my daughter
In dry lands and weary seas
I lay before you
A flowered crown and this decree

You are my princess
My precious jewel
My masterpiece
No longer broken
For whom I set free is free indeed”