Reflection - Consider the lilies of the field
18.08.2009
The poet, Emily Dickson once said that the only commandment she ever obeyed was, 'Consider the lilies of the field.' The invitation of Jesus to do just that all too often falls on deaf ears. But when it is heard and responded to, what joy ensues. On a Spring or Summer's day, when we are seduced by the beauty of the wild flowers, or when in Autumn the fruits and berries of our gardens delight us, along with the changing colours of the leaves, we have moments of certainty that all is right with the world.
"Look at her," an elderly man said to his visitor as they stood by a blue delphinium in his garden. "Just look at how she gives you everything she's got." He was echoing what the poet, Mary Oliver wrote: 'Don't flowers put on their prettiness each Spring and go to it with everything they've got?'
This exuberant generosity of creation calls us to join in the dance of nature.
'You are part of this. You belong,' it seems to say.
'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age....'
(Dylan Thomas)
It's the same force, the same Creator Spirit that radiates through us all. When we are at home in ourselves, our hearts quiet and receptive, we are deeply aware of this connectedness. Wonder and awe at the overwhelming richness and beauty of creation move us to overflowing gratitude. We sing. We dance. We hymn psalms of praise. 'When I behold the heavens, the works of your hands, the moon and the stars which you set in place...'
All the great religions, all the mystics urge us to find this still point within where we rest in God and experience the connectedness of all nature. This is a place of great delight.
But it's also a place of great pain, especially today when we are aware of the terrible destruction happening around us. We are witnesses to one of the worst extinction rates in the history of our planet. Our species, humanity, seems set on the irrevocable destruction of millions of harmless, beautiful, irreplaceable species of plants and animals. Our earth is sobbing with grief at what is happening.
'Consider the lilies of the field.'
We must consider our frail and fragile planet and, with all our energies and creativity, love her into health once more.
