God’s glory shows up in the most unexpected ways, in the most supremely mundane places. In one of my more pensive moods, sitting on a hillside amidst a cascade of wildflowers, I was enjoying God’s beauty on a warm, sunny day, relaxing with little care in the world (at least for one small moment). The birds in the air, the bright yellow sun in the blue sky, and the occasional puffy clouds made for a pleasant pastoral landscape that seemed too picture-perfect to be real. It was the image an artist would paint of how he or she wanted life to be, without blemish or wrinkle.

I reached down and plucked a common daisy to examine its perfection up close. To my regret, I have often moved through life too quickly to savor the beauty or, to use a well-worn phrase, take time to smell the flowers. There was so much exquisiteness in the details, nuanced at its various levels of hues and shapes. Magnificent in its various traces of colors, this flower reflected God in His manifold glory.

The Mount of Beatitudes sprouted in me at that moment, where Jesus may have hand-picked a similar flower, to teach a lesson on the care God has for those who believe:

“And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.” (Matt. 6:28–29)

What other lessons might I learn from this wild delicacy in my hand? Upon closer inspection, my delighted enjoyment found something disturbingly out of place, that on first notice marred the perfection. Horrors to my assaulted, now disturbed vision of glory! Did the artist make a mistake? Did he brush up against the canvas with his sleeve before the acrylic dried, leaving a slight but noticeable smudge behind? I picked up another blossom, and to my disconcerted dismay, there was another blemish, different in size and shape but nonetheless in plain sight. I resisted looking at the other flowers around me, fearing more disappointment. How can this be, the reflection of God’s glory in a flower, marred by the splotched print of a black mark?

Continuing in my meditative state, I recognized that in each of these flowers, the stain of discolored imperfection broke through unembarrassed, unhidden, almost brazenly. It was only visible to perceptive eyes looking deeper into the glory of God in the world. Closer observations bring a person to see perfection at a more profound level. The stain did not take away from the glory but gave it depth and texture. The splendor of God’s glory engulfed the marring but did not eliminate it—kind of like the nail prints in the hands of our perfect, resurrected, and glorified Lord when He showed Himself to the disciple Thomas:

“Unless I [Thomas] see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe….” Jesus said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:25, 27)

The blemish on that daisy spoke to me: Jesus’ resurrected glory engulfs the nails of my sin that put Him on the cross, and it reminds me forever that His death brought the beauty of salvation. Simply put, we cannot speak of God’s glory apart from His glory in Jesus on the cross.

Even in my daily walk, as I stumble along with forays off the path of faithfulness, my sins and mistakes continue to give profound texture to God’s grace and glory in Christ, who forgives me for all my sins.

The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 5:20–21)

The more I learn of my sinfulness, the more I grow in understanding how great God’s grace and glory is. He died not only for the sins I was aware of when I turned to Him in faith but also for every sin I committed in the past and will commit in the future. And that is absolutely amazing. I am reminded of this in the marred blemish of the daisy, and forever through the nail prints in Jesus’ hands that He has carried into eternity. That is why the apostle Peter wrote in his last written words in Scripture:

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)