Beauty in unexpected places

The verges past which I cycle at this time of the year tend to be an overgrown tangle of tall grasses, thistles and nettles with a few flowers here and there.  Doubtless of interest to proper botanists but not a particularly hospitable habitat for anything more appealing to my eyes!

Yet there is one spot which I pass where, if you look carefully, you will see something rather special.

The lesser butterfly orchid, a plant described as ‘vulnerable and threatened’, half hidden amongst the surrounding grass, a gleam of pure white beauty in inhospitable surroundings. 

The Lord Jesus said: “If the world hates you, you will know that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”  (John 15:18-19) 

Living in a world which has rejected Him, we may feel ‘vulnerable and threatened’, something which is indeed a daily experience for our persecuted brethren.  But firmly rooted in our Saviour, may we be true and faithful ambassadors for Him in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.     Philippians 2:14-15

 

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,

All His wondrous compassion and purity:

O Thou Spirit divine,

All my nature refine,

Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

                                                Albert Orsborn