Beauty from Bud to Bloom

A stroll in the garden never seems to disappoint - there is always something happening that draws my eye to the beauty of God’s creation…the intricacies of God’s handiwork, the beauty of the colours and delicacy of designs…and today was yet another example…and not just in the finished blooms, but right from bud to bloom.

I really identify with C.S. Lewis who is said to have called himself a 'beauty hunter'. Apparently 'Lewis enjoyed the habit of walking the garden before breakfast in order to drink in "the beauty of the morning, thanking God for the weather, the roses, the song of the birds, and anything else he could find to enjoy."'

Praise the Creator with me and give him glory as you see with what precision and detail and artistic design this one particular prolific, and thus often seen as ‘ordinary’, flower reveals as it goes from bud to full bloom with each stage having its own style and beauty.

Isn’t that a bit like life? - our lives, our circumstances where we grow, mature and ‘age’….each stage has its own designer beauty, its own purpose and form, no less beautiful, just different…all for giving glory back to the Creator.  The same God who puts such exquisite accuracy and design beauty into every bloom of an ‘ordinary’ flower bush, cares for us - for you and me!  

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.

In our world, which gives us many temptations to worry, lets be reminded by God’s word above in Luke 12:27-29, and my garden stroll example below!

Forgotten Honour - John Bunyan

After the Bible, probably the most well known and most widely published book is 'Pilgrims Progress' by John Bunyan.

John Bunyan lived from 1628 -1688 and his famous book which he began to write while he was in prison, and was published in 1678

In this series of 'Forgotten Honour' in which we look at how the concepts of honour and shame permeated the thinking and theology throughout most of Church History, we see it once again in how Bunyan's described the loss of Pilgrim's 'sin burden'. 

Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing,

Thus far did I come laden with my sin;

Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in

Till I came hither: What a place is this!

Must here be the beginning of my bliss?

Must here the Burden fall from off my back?

Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?

Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be

The Man that there was put to shame for me.

It was the last two lines of the above paragraph that Charles Spurgeon quoted in his 'Morning and Evening' morning devotional for February 1st and it piqued my interest.

We in the 21st century Western world might find it strange that Bunyan's primary way to describe salvation and the cross is in terms of shame. But we can be assured this was no accidental choice of words, but his would have carefully crafted what he said in order to convey maximum meaning and understanding. He would have also believed that his readers would have identified and understood what he was talking about. 

The bliss he knew the cross to give, he understood in terms of loss of shame. He saw the burden of sin as a burden of shame, and he saw what Christ 'bore' for him on the cross was his burden of shame. His burden was released because Christ bore the shame of his sin. His sin was gone because his shame was dealt with.

And he wanted his readers to understand their situation through the eyes of the main character, Christian,…and in doing so he spoke in terms of honour and shame.  Thus his message to us also is to think more about the cross in terms of Christ bearing our shame…and letting that truth be what motivates us to sing, and jump for joy and praise our Lord!

Something further to think about in relation to this that was also brought to my attention by someone recently…..To not emphasise the shame aspects of the cross not only reduces a person's ability to fully understand the meaning of sin and the fullness of the release of the load, but also therefore lessens the amount and significance of joy and praise given back to God. 

To grow in our understanding of salvation in terms of honour and shame, grows our appreciation and thankfulness of all that God has done for us in Christ, and thus gives more glory to God….so to not help others understand such cross realities actually holds them back from giving God the glory he deserves. And so we then need to ask ourselves how God views a situation where we are not giving him the glory he should have?