The Flower Fades

What? You can’t see any flowers? No instant bursts of bloom after all that effort? No, of course not. We’ll just have to wait and see what transpires, in the fullness of time.

That was what I wrote in November last year, under the heading “If It’s Saturday”. If you look back in the archives, you’ll see that it comes just below a photo of five terracotta pots ranged along the backyard wall.

It’s normally bleak, wet and windswept at the back of the house, but that warm spell in the spring brought out the daffodils and tulips on time, instead of weeks behind everyone else’s. They looked particularly fine in the slanting sunshine of the early morning, as you can see below.

The daffodils faded quite quickly, but the tulips lasted well, for once not immediately beaten down by the wind and the rain. The yellow ones also had a scent that defies my powers of description, a fine and delicate fragrance only perceptible when you put your nose right inside the cup of petals.

I watered them well, and supported the ones that were starting to sag; but, of course, in time, even the brightest and most vibrant of blooms must fade.

For a while, you get a better view of the interior of each flower.

Then the wind picks up, and the petals float down to the earth beneath.

It’s in the nature of a fallen world. Isaiah expresses it well.

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.

If that seems like a melancholy prospect, then you need to read on.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40.7-8)

Here are Matthew Henry’s thoughts on these verses.

And may the Lord prepare our hearts by the teaching of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, that high and proud thoughts may be brought down, good desires planted, crooked and rugged tempers made straight and softened, and every hindrance removed, that we may be ready for his will on earth, and prepared for his heavenly kingdom. What are all that belongs to fallen man, or all that he does, but as the grass and the flower thereof! And what will all the titles and possessions of a dying sinner avail, when they leave him under condemnation! The word of the Lord can do that for us, which all flesh cannot. The glad tidings of the coming of Christ were to be sent forth to the ends of the earth. Satan is the strong man armed; but our Lord Jesus is stronger; and he shall proceed, and do all that he purposes. Christ is the good Shepherd; he shows tender care for young converts, weak believers, and those of a sorrowful spirit. By his word he requires no more service, and by his providence he inflicts no more trouble, than he will strengthen them for. May we know our Shepherd's voice, and follow him, proving ourselves his sheep.

That’s good, isn’t it? And now I shall go out and water the pots that are still on the wall. The spring flowers may be over, but the summer blooms are on their way.