A Bloom in Prison

Everyone's heard the saying bloom where you're planted.  It usually accompanies a story where someone is stuck in a job with a rotten boss or facing some difficulty.  How about blooming in a Federal Prison?  A place where your room is, as Jorge says, "a bathroom."   Yet, Jorge blooms.  In a prison full of angry, tired men he is able to share his faith with anyone who is open.  He smiles, laughs, and he is insanely thankful to God for all God does 4 him, including sending me to him ;)  People say to Jorge all the time, "How can you love God when you are here?  Why do you love God when he has not set you free?"  Jorge answers simple, "I know God has a plan 4 me, and he loves me.  From the first time I met Jorge, I noticed something different about him.  He is more free than some men who are not behind bars.  He has this peace about him beyond description in words.  The peace that only comes from relying on God and living on faith daily.  Unlike my boisterous loud manner, he is quiet, and yet he commands attention in a noisy room of visitors.  His smile is contageous.  When he smiles at someone they can't resist smiling back.  Every prison he has been assigned to, he spreads the Gospel with his quiet manner and big smile and humor.  So many times on the phone he has shared how he has told a new person about what God has done 4 him in prison and usually he makes the guy cry.  It kind of seems weird, to hear that tough, hardenend criminals, cry, over a simple story of God's love, but they do.  Why?  Because Jorge is blooming in a place of concrete and weeds.  He brings a message of hope in a place of grey walls and bars.  We can overlook 1 single flower in a boquet, but that same flower, blooming in a field stands out. Jorge is that single bloom, reaching towards the sun, showing the world God is everywhere.