Spring Flowers From Our Yard

For most of my years I have deemed flowers "girly," and therefore have not taken much interest in them. I once walked into the corner of our yard in Virginia, however, and was greeted by the scent of honeysuckle--and I think that was the first time I appreciated the beauty of God's floral creations.

Two miles from our house in Virginia, there was a park that had once been a fort guarding the James River; after being destroyed in the War Between the States, it was later restored as a garden. Every spring it would burst into vibrant and variegated color, and sweet perfumes would fill the air, delighting the senses and awing the mind with the beauty of God's handiwork. At once so complex as to defy description and so sublime as to directly touch a heart given to tearing things of beauty into their minutiae, this garden was one of the many things our Lord used to make me conscious of His glory, despite my previous neglect.

These are pictures of some flowers around our property; the sprig of white flowers is of the same sort that sprung up all over our county. I don't know what kind they are, but they smell wonderful!

By the time I post this, many of the flowers have faded and hang upon their stems in a forlorn shadow of their former glory. At one time, I saw this as cause for despair--a garden full of dying petals surrounded one with the evidence that even the most beautiful life ends in death. But from death springs life again. The initial beauty of the flower is but a means for it to bear fruit; from this fruit, to bear seeds; from these seeds, to bear more plants after its kind.

A number of applications could be made from this to the Christian life. Those who mourn the passing of the initial bloom of conversion can take joy in the fact that they have moved from a joyful, but largely ignorant, state of mind to one more versed in the truths of God and thus more able to continue growing in His grace and spreading the truth about Him throughout the world. The air of the garden may perhaps be less hospitable than the greenhouse, but will help the plant to grow in hardihood and perseverance.

And then there is the lesson of death for the Christian; or rather, death as a means to life: "For this corruptible shall put on incorruptible, and this mortal must put on immortality. SO when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'" (1 Corinthians 15:53-55)

And finally is the lesson of God's handiwork in creation. Not only has He stretched out the heavens with the palm of His hand, not only does He arrange the hearts of men and nations to do His bidding, but He feeds the birds of the air, and He has fashioned the flowers and attired them in colors Solomon could envy.