They say good things come in small packages.

And sometimes they come in bouquets.

I have a friend who is giving good things to others and is now on a mission to share God’s love petal by petal.

Even though her story is appropriate for the month of February with its Valentines and flowers, it is even more poignant as we all prepare for the upcoming Lenten season. As we count down the days to another season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, I think my friend Woodeene’s story is an important and inspirational example of how we can get out of ourselves and be Christ to others in the weeks to come.

Her story is another example of how we can all live out this Year of Mercy in our own communities with a little creativity and a lot of heart.

Woodeene Koenig-Bricker is a gifted and award-winning editor, author and freelance writer. She is not wealthy. She freely admits that being a freelance writer in Eugene, Oregon, means that you “work all the time to make ends meet and sometimes the ends are a bit farther apart than others.”

But one day, as Woodeene  was standing in line at a local store, she noticed the store had an area where they sold flowers. Having the curious mind of a journalist, she wondered what the store did with all the old and unsold flowers. She left the line and went to inquire with the florist and found out that the flowers are either sold at a deep discount or are simply thrown away.

On an impulse Woodeene, really having no extra money, asked if she could buy them and give them away. That day about two weeks ago, she purchased $700 worth of flowers for $35.

After loading the back of her car with the mound of blooms she drove to local oncology centers, women’s care centers, nursing homes, and the like and began giving away bunches of flowers.

Woodeene shared with a private group of Facebook friends that she “went to nearby doctor’s office and told him to give the bouquet to the person he had to give the hardest news to the next day. He blinked and blinked and said, ‘I can do that.’ I went to the mammogram center and said to give a bouquet to the next few women who get bad reports. I just gave away flowers where I thought there would be hurting people.”

When she was asked why she was doing this and who she was, she said, “Let’s just say I am the Flower Fairy Godmother.”

That first day, Woodeene gave away about 30 bouquets of flowers. She got a call the next day from the excited florist who said, “I have more flowers, you want them?” Again she packed her car and took off  to the fire station, more nursing homes, handed bouquets to a few “grumpy looking people on the street”  and to a veterinarian to comfort those losing their beloved pet that day.

And so a new idea to anonymously brighten the lives of others began.

An idea whose only reward is knowing that someone who received bad news would also receive the fragrance of love through some petals and stems thanks to a stranger.

Woodeene says “I have plans to take them to a women’s shelter, several nursing homes, a right to life center and any other place that I can think of where people might need the reminder that there is beauty in the world and we are all beloved sons and daughters of God.”

What does Woodeene get out of this small idea?

“The reaction has been beyond belief. People stand there with their mouths hanging open. So all of a sudden, I seem to have been catapulted into something bigger than myself. Something that feels just huge,” she says.

She has started a GoFundMe page — https://www.gofundme.com/6jxs6bcs — to help keep the love blooming by making flower purchases twice each week for no other reason than to make “the world just a little bit happier, brighter and more positive.”

Thanks for reading her story. Hopefully it will help inspire us to sprout our own seeds of faith, hope and charity in the upcoming Lenten Season in this Jubilee Year of Mercy.