Curb Appeal

According to the list of top ten things you need to do in order to sell your house quickly and profitably, curb appeal ranks Number One.

It is what makes potential buyers want to stop their car, get out, and take a closer look.

Knowing this, I walked to the street, stood back, and tried to really look at our property as a house and yard, and not the “home” it is to us.

I took in the healthiness of our cedar trees and the fact that our lawn looks better than it’s looked in years. The paint job that Mike and the boys did on the outside lends a definite crispness and warmth to the exterior.

All in all, it seemed inviting to me.

But I wanted a little color in the form of flowers.

Boston ferns already hung on the front porch and were lush and healthy, but all my ventures with flowers that year had ended badly. Um…for the flowers.

In North Texas’ heat and humidity the fact that you plant flowers that “love the sun” is not enough. In other words, they really need to be able to withstand having an electric blanket thrown over them for about four to five hours each day.

Unless it’s a cactus you’re interested in nurturing, growing flowers can be a frustrating project.

I wanted some flowers.

Because we were about to leave for a week-long vacation I knew the sensibility of spending the time and money on new bedding plants or baskets was futile. But I was not to be deterred. There had to be another way…

I began to search for other alternatives and when I found a store that sold luscious hanging baskets - full of color and absolutely gorgeous - I knew I had struck gold. The sign declared them to be “faux” arrangements. Could it be? I reached out and fingered the delicate petals and slightly pinched the leaves.

Yep, they were faux, all right. But I would have never known it just by looking.

I purchased some and hoped potential buyers wouldn’t know the difference either.

The night we returned from vacation everyone was busy unloading the van, sorting through the piles of dirty laundry, and perusing the mound of mail that had accumulated. As I passed by the front window, something caught my eye.

My baskets were gone.

As I walked to the front door I heard the sound of running water and realized that Mike must be turning on the sprinklers. Stepping out onto the porch, I peered into the darkness. What I saw caused me to double over in laughter.

Oh, yeah. He was watering the yard all right.

And - right in the middle of yard, located where they’d be sure to get a good, healthy drink, were my “faux” baskets, being watered as though their very life depended on it.

Obviously I’d neglected to tell my husband that…well…they didn’t have a life!

Although this was funny and we had a good laugh over it, something about the pretend plants has bothered me since the day I first purchased them. I could never quite figure out why and tried to just shrug it off.

Hey, they looked good. They added a burst of color and vibrancy to the front porch. There was no maintenance. It’s all good, right?

But it wasn’t until the day after Mike watered them, that I realized it was the very fact that there was no maintenance needed that bothered me the most.

You see, others, like my husband, might never know my plants were fake. But I knew, and that made all the difference to me.

No life flowed through their veins. The sun could shine on them all day and never make a difference - either for the good or for the bad. They were the same, day after day after day, never reacting to their surrounding or to the hands that “tended” them.

There’s something to be said for authenticity. For being “real”, even when it means the less-than-pretty parts are exposed for others to see. When life flows through our veins, we grow and thrive and produce. And - sometimes - that growth is stunted by our surroundings.

Sometimes we wilt. Sometimes we grow hungry and need more nutrients than we needed the day before. Sometimes all we need is to be placed in the middle of God’s garden and have the sprinklers turned on us for a good, long soak in his mercy.

But it’s only in authenticity that good things will happen. Without it, all efforts are futile. Wasted. It’s only in honesty that we can grow and produce and be healthy, happy Christians. I pray that I can learn a lesson from the bright, burst of color that used to hang on my porch.

I’m not perfect. There are days when I’m feeling a bit wilted. There are times when my spiritual “color” is a tad drab. And I’m certain there are seasons when God, my gardener, shakes his head, wondering when I’ll respond to His attention and care.

But that’s the thing. He does care. And that’ll never change, no matter the long hours I require or the attention I need from him. His goal is for me to be healthy and productive. What I look like or feel like today is not indicative of my potential.

Consistency. Perseverence. Trust.

Water. Nurture. Love.

I pray that today I can be a bright burst of color on God’s front porch. But let it not be for show or to impress. Let me be real. Authentic. Let life flow through my veins so that I can be productive.

Let me exhibit curb appeal so that others will want a garden of their own.

“What is true is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see clearly.”