Tulip

No, this is not a post on systematic theology, but the rather fine flowers growing in our chapel’s forecourt. They have peculiar, crinkled petals upon which online sources appear unwilling to elucidate. I had a bad experience with tulips some years ago, the spring winds battering them and breaking their stems. Persuaded they were a waste of effort, I subsequently refused to plant them, but this year, home and chapel have been well rewarded by these beauitful blooms.

Famously, tulip mania gripped Holland in the 1630s and is thought to have been the first recorded speculative bubble in history, with thousands losing savings on tulip bulbs. They thought the prices would rise forever and give them a magnificent return, but the market crashed and many lost their money. Our stocks and shares might be in better (but not prettier) commodities than tulip bulbs, but that wealth, too, shall slip from our fingers, as the summons to appear before Almighty God is received. A starving man will exchange a bag of gold for a slice of bread; a dying man will give his whole estate for some extra breath: what will a man give in exchange for his soul?, the Lord Jesus asked.

Enjoy wealth and flowers while you may, but only the riches and beauty of Christ will endure the hospital bed, the care home, the chapel of rest and the graveside.

"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8