A Hyacinth For Your Soul

Once, when I was younger, I watched a movie called Brush with Fate. It was adapted from Susan Vreeland’s book The Girl in Hyacinth Blue. The story centers around a fictional lost painting by Vermeer.

Inspired by Vermeer’s work, the author imagined an entire history for this invented painting. In the film, the painting you see was actually created by American artist Jonathan Janson, who was moved by Vreeland’s story and Vermeer’s style.

In the narrative, Vermeer paints his daughter sitting by a window, wrapped in a hyacinth-blue cloth. The painting is stolen and sold, passing through many hands—each owner leaving behind a story.

One story stayed with me: the story of a potato farmer’s wife.

The setting might have been during wartime or a famine. Food was scarce. The family survived on nothing but potatoes. As their supply dwindled, the wife made the painful decision to cook the seed potatoes. Her husband was furious—those potatoes were their livelihood. And when even those ran out, the wife turned to the last thing of value they owned: the Vermeer painting.

She sold it. With the money, she bought food from the market.

But then something unforgettable happened.

On her way home, she was stopped by a flower vendor.

“Buy a hyacinth for your soul,” he said.

Buy a hyacinth for your soul.

Those words lodged in my heart.

Food was scarce. Her family was starving. And yet—with the little money she had—she bought a flower. A flower she couldn’t eat. A flower she couldn’t use to feed her family. But it made her smile. And that simple, impractical smile made me stop and think.

Later, I came across a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier:

 “If thou of fortune be bereft, 

and in thy store there be but left two loaves, 

sell one, and with the dole, 

buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.”

It reminded me of a Chinese proverb my childhood babysitter once shared:

“If you have but two pennies, use one to buy bread and the other to buy a flower.”

I never understood it as a child. But now, the idea seems almost radical.

In today’s world, we do everything we can to secure our lives. We stock up on all the “bread” we can—money, status, insurance, assets. The pursuit of security drives us forward. But the more we chase it, the more we discover how fragile it is. In trying to attain security, we expose our insecurities. It becomes a cycle.

For the longest time, I thought this striving was greed. But now I see: we’re just trying to feel safe.

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “It is written: man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

He said this to the devil who tempted Him to turn stones into bread after forty days of fasting.

The message is clear: the enemy knows our weaknesses. Hunger is human. Wanting to survive is natural. It’s a strength—but also a vulnerability. And when we try to secure our lives by our own effort, we risk falling into a toxic spiral of survival-driven fear. Ironically, in the attempt to survive, we may lose the very life we’re trying to preserve.

But here’s a thought to break that thought:

In God’s kingdom, there is room for you. This isn’t a knock-out game. You don’t have to outcompete anyone. You just have to know where your security lies.

And that security is found in Jesus Christ.

So stop struggling to buy more bread.

Let your soul smile.

Cling to God’s promises.

And buy a hyacinth for your soul.

It’s going to be okay.