Zinnia

This zinnia I found growing in the environs of Northampton. It always strikes me as a rather fun and cheerful flower, the kind which, had it mouth and vocabulary, would share jokes and charming witticisms. Native to the Americas, it is a fairly hardly annual and graces well our British borders. Those little, yellow disk florets in its centre appear like little flowers in their own right, yet they make up an even more pleasing whole.

Ethan the Ezrahite reflects upon the many mercies of God in Psalm 89:

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

Yet we also speak of God’s singular “mercy” as well as “mercies”. Truly, His small, repeated acts of kindness, His daily blessings and His regular provisions are but part of a larger picture of grace and wider mercy. He saves us from wrath and judgement and yet those little, daily acts of kindness and gracious tokens we often receive are all part of the broader package of divine love.

The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. Psalm 145

A D