The Little Flower - Thérèse Of Lisieux

1873–97

Thérèse of Lisieux felt called to religious life from a very young age. She joined the Carmelite order in Lisieux, France, when she was fifteen years old. The young nun is now one of the Catholic faith’s most recognizable saints because of the influence her autobiographical writings had after her death.

When she was only twenty-four years old, Thérèse died of tuberculosis. Her writings were compiled and published posthumously in a book called The Story of a Soul. She wrote frequently about flowers and the lessons she learned as she contemplated them—so much so that she’s become known as “The Little Flower” or “The Little Flower of Jesus.”

One of the things that flowers taught her was that everyone is important in God’s eyes. “I realised that if every tiny flower wanted to be a rose,” she wrote, “spring would lose its loveliness and there would be no wild flowers to make the meadows gay.”

It’s the same in “the world of souls—which is the garden of Jesus,” she said, comparing some “great saints” to lilies and roses, while other people “must be content to be the daisies or the violets which rejoice His eyes whenever He glances down.”

Her biggest revelation from her careful contemplation of flowers was that each person can be perfect when she is “that which He wants us to be.”

Whether or not you believe that someone can be “perfect,” Thérèse made a good observation. God has created us each to be different. He’s given us different personalities, different temperaments, different talents, different desires. It’s to our benefit to be who God created us to be and not look at others and wish we had been created like them.

Whether you consider yourself a rose or a daisy, you are exactly the way God intended you to be. Stop envying the other flowers in the field and embrace your unique, God-given identity.

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

Matthew 6:28-29