"Would Roses Cost a Lot?"

“Would Roses Cost a Lot, Mister?”

Henry Penn, the Boston florist who originated the slogan, “Say It With Flowers,” told how one morning two boys and a girl came into his florist shop and said: “We’re the flower committee and we would like some nice yellow flowers, sir. Do you have any yellow flowers? He would like them better if they were yellow. He had a yellow sweater.”

“Are they for a funeral?” asked Penn.

The children nodded “yes” and kept back the tears. “She’s his     sister,” one of the boys explained. “He was good kid, a truck yesterday — we were playing in the street — we saw it happen.”

Then the other boy added, “Us kids took up a collection. We got eighteen cents — would roses cost a lot, mister? Yellow roses?”

Touched by the story of the tragedy and the loyalty of the kids, Henry Penn replied, “I have some nice yellow roses here that I am selling for eighteen cents a dozen just this morning.” The sympathetic florist     accepted the eighteen cents and the committee carried away the flowers they had chosen. Said Penn, “I felt uplifted for days. I had been given the inexpressible privilege of sharing something.”

As Christians, we too have that inexpressible privilege of sharing. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). “We are  ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us.” To share the glorious Good News of salvation in Christ, “we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

We want all to know “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). In love and compassion, we share the knowledge of Christ.

Original article written by Brother Morris Thurman, former preacher for Memorial Road congregation, June 26, 1977.