JUST A BOUQUET OF BLOSSOMS?

By Ada Brownell

Have you ever thought about the potential hidden in blossoms?

I’m a thinker. When I see an egg, I remind myself I’m looking at what could have been a bird. A body with the power to grow, crow, cluck or sing, digest food, and make more eggs or birds. The type depends on the DNA God in his wisdom created.

So as a thinker I began looking at blossoms and realize if they’re still on the tree, amazing power resides inside. An armful of peach flowers has the potential to feed fruit to a family for about a year. First it’s the blossom, then it’s a little green ball that will eventually become a peach if the tree is cared for, the blossom isn’t bitten by frost, and even the wind allows the little nugget to grow and produce a peach.

But that’s only the beginning. If nurtured and harvested, the peach will produce a seed that has the capacity to become a tree that will grow enough peaches and seeds to plant a whole orchard.

When God made life and designed humans, he gave even more of that amazing potential to us. We gasp when we realize what awesome potential we have! Not only to create and do wonderful things, but also to love, and to share the love of our Creator!

As I wrote my latest novel, Love’s Delicate Blossom, I thought of some of the breath-taking reality I just talked about. Yet a suspense novel is never just about fragrant, beautiful flowers. The story begins with a kidnapping and bullets whizzing by our leading lady, Ritah O’Casey.  She has a beau who wants to get married, and she says wait. She’s on her way to college so she can teach women, in case they become widows, how to survive and take care of their children instead of sending them to orphanages.

Many women are becoming widows in 1917 and 1918, an era when few people have access to a doctor. There’s a flu pandemic, and World War I breaks out and Ritah takes her knowledge to an Army clinic.

A handsome farmer teaches Ritah about the power in a seed and she is intrigued by the man. Yet the wealthy beau at home, a woodworker and helper in his parents’ mercantile, isn’t giving up.

Love’s Delicate Blossom is the third book in the Peaches and Dreams Christian romantic suspense series. First is The Lady Fugitive, and thenPeach Blossom Rancher.

All the books are available on Amazon, along with six more books you’ll enjoy. My brand is Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement.

Ada Brownell is the author of nine books. She has written for Christian publications since age 15 and spent much of her life as a reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colo.

A freckled redhead, she’s used to standing out in a crowd like her seven older sibling achievers she grew up with. She also is a veteran youth Christian education teacher, and most of her life sang in Christian gospel groups including the Damascus Singers and Praise Trio. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Ozarks Chapter of American Christian Writers.

Read sample chapters of her books on Amazon or listen to her audio Imagine the Future You. Amazon author page is https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell.

The week before Ritah leaves for college in 1917, she rescues Tulip, whose parents are dead and their hired hand tries to enslave the young lady, only age fourteen, in prostitution.

Ritah has a wealthy beau, Edmund Pritchitt III, who has proposed marriage, but she says no. She’s going to teach widows how to survive and keep their children from becoming orphans. Then she meets a handsome farmer who turns her head. But she can’t allow herself to fall in love. Many school districts forbid teachers to court or marry.

Will Ritah save Tulip? Will Ritah teach? After she works in a World War I health clinic, will disease take her life, or even a bullet from the hired hand’s gun? Will Edmund Pritchitt III or farmer Joe Nichols win her heart?