Smellies!
“Smell this one Papa! It’s really nice!” My four year old granddaughter calls across the garden centre from her favourite spot among the candles and smellies. I dutifully join her and smell the candle. “Oh that’s lovely!” I agree.
“What smell is that, Papa? I look at the packaging and report that it is Magnolia scented.
“What’s Magnolia?” is her next question; here I’m on more certain ground. “Magnolias are trees with beautiful flowers that mostly blossom in the spring. Every flower has a wonderful fragrance and the trees have flower buds that as they open look just like candles. And as the light begins to fade at dusk the trees look almost alight, lit up by hundreds of candle-like flowers.”
“I’d like to see that!” she said.
“Well you’ll have to wait until spring now, but there’s a garden near us where we can see lots of candle flowers. We can take a trip there if you like?”
“Thank you Papa, I would like that!
A garden of Magnolias
The garden has a large collection of Magnolias, many over 100 years old. There is also a grove of Magnolia trees which are still young and some have yet to flower. Each year as I have visited those young Magnolias, the different varieties are beginning to blossom; so that as every spring passes the effect of these bright candle-like blooms becomes more and more spectacular.
It was strange that we should have this discussion just the day after I had been sitting quietly among the young Magnolia trees in that garden. That afternoon I had sat down on the grass at the far end of the grove; I looked around me through the young trees. Away from the rest of the people enjoying the beautiful garden I wanted to listen to what God, my Father, wished to say to me. As I sat there quietly, what I saw turned my thoughts to the difference between being in the light and being in the dark.
A World of Darkness or of Light?
Because behind me the Grove edge quickly transitioned into a much older conifer plantation. As I peered into the darkness of those mature evergreens I could almost feel a sense of melancholy around me; dark foliage, dark bark, a bed of dead, brown needles in a thick carpet on the plantation floor. All this preventing very little from growing beneath the trees. I sat in the grassy glade under the Magnolia trees with that darkness firmly behind me. In the young glade birds were chattering to each other, flitting from tree to tree; butterflies were practising their aerobatic displays with each other; bumblebees hurrying to find fresh nectar among the many flowers that set the meadow alight with colour. Life in all its joyful, buoyant fullness. There was a cheerful optimism here in this glade that contrasted so starkly with the pessimistic lifelessness of the conifers stretching away, beyond.
And then it came to me, as if prompted by God Himself: “Here, in this Grove is a picture of how life as a Christian should be.”
The Light of the world
The previous week at our church we had been thinking about one of the well known sayings of Jesus:
“I am the light of the World. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
It is one of the seven “I am” sayings of Jesus found in John’s Gospel.
Jesus calls us to embrace His light and to walk in it. We are called to reflect His light out into a world that sits in spiritual darkness, where we can be practical examples of the goodness and righteousness and truth that are all part of His light. How do we do it? By living according to His word, loving others and demonstrating our faith and trust in Him daily.
Jesus also said: “The thief does not come except to steal kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”(John 10:10)
It was as if the conifer darkness was a picture of a life of disappointment, lack, painfulness, even failure. While in front of me was a promise of new growth, vibrant colours, abundant life and fruitfulness. On the Magnolia trees, flower buds were already forming, a promise of so much more to come. How we experience the world can be like that – living in the dark and struggling or living in the light in abundance.
I have decided that I will offer to take my young granddaughter to see the garden’s beautiful magnolias when they flower in the spring and show her how the candle flowers light up the landscape – and how they are a picture of the light of Jesus shining out into a dark world that needs His light so badly.
All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
John Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
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