Vulnerability

Daily Post:  Tender

The hardiness of plant life is always such a wonder to me.  This lone daisy sprouting up from amid the hard planks of wood in the decking is tribute to God’s creative power to make things grow in the most unlikely places.  Now thriving, because it has raised its head to receive air, light, and moisture, the flower is both tender and vulnerable to the elements.  Yet the real danger it faces comes from the animal kingdom.  From little cotton-tail bunnies, to an awe-struck child, to the homeowner who does not want this flower growing in this place…this created living expression of life faces the challenge of being eaten, pulled or cut away in a heart beat.  The delicate, fragile flower, has beat the odds of actually sprouting and living in an environment hostile to its life.

One might say that this flower has fulfilled all it was designed to do in this world.  Through some quick research efforts this morning I discovered a few things about daisies, I’d like to share with you…

• Daisies are in the family of “vascular plants” which circulate nutrients and water throughout the plant; these plants make up almost 10% of all flowering plants on earth.
• Daises are found everywhere on earth except Antarctica
• “Daisy” is thought to come for the Old English “daes eag” meaning “days eye” because of the way it opens at dawn.
• Paul Dietrich Giseke, a German botanist, classified the daisy family as “Compositae” in 1792.
• Daises represent purity and innocence.
• The Daisy’s white petals count as one flower, while the cluster of yellow disc petals that form the eye are technically another, so it is considered two flowers in one.
• Daisy leaves are edible, and can be added to salads, they are high in Vitamin C.
• Medicinally speaking, Daisies are thought to slow bleeding, relieve indigestion and coughing; and in homeopathy, the daisy is the gardener’s friend for it’s ability to ease back pain.
• Since daisies thrive in generally inhospitable conditions, and are resistant to most bugs and pesticides, they can become weeds if not controlled.
• Bees love the daisy relatives, like Goldenrod, so they are important to honey makers.

God has done a marvelous thing when He created this world with all the varieties of plant life, each having its own purpose for being here.  Now it stands to reason, that if God cared so much about these tender flowers that He provides for their every need, doesn’t God prove His love people by doing much more than this?  Jesus spoke to this idea in Matthew 6:25-34, when dealing with the world wide issue of anxiety.

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  And why are you worried about clothing?  Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!  Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We are just as fragile, just as tender as the daisies in the field, yet Jesus says our loving Father in heaven provides for us in the same exact ways He does for the flowers and birds.  This should free us from the anxieties of this life, because one thing is absolutely sure…

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

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