Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle has to be a garden favourite. We have several growing at the chapel. Their flowers smell beautifully, and their berries, though rather tart and not worth eating, are just as attractive to the eye as the flower’s scent to the nose. Bees and butterflies love its nectar, but there is one butterfly- the white admiral- which entirely depends on it. Without honeysuckle, the caterpillars would starve and that species of butterfly would be seen no more. That is a good reason to plant more honeysuckles!

Much of what we deem essential is simply ephemeral. For the Christian, there are many things that ‘keep us going’ through this pilgrimage of life: friends, family, hobbies, routines, but each one we could actually do without. Only God’s word and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling must we truly rely upon. There are people in eastern jail cells who are starved of Christian fellowship, but without it the Lord still keeps them. What they must think of those who have access to it, but do not partake of it, I cannot tell. No, take away God’s word and the Spirit’s presence, and we are lost, our faith extinguished, our souls deadened forever. All else we can do without, though God, in His great mercy and grace, asks very few of us to do so.

Image above  by Ian Lindsay from Pixabay