Where have all the flowers gone?
It seemed to us Cuban children of the 1960’s, that flowers and all things pretty were doing a disappearance act, like some magic act from hell. Before we could say, “Ay caramba,” life had gone from plush Technicolor to an ever-opaquing, B-movie-version of black and white. Beauty itself had become a target, the first casualty of a collectivist regime hellbent on criminalizing individual self-expression and all things bright and beautiful and pure and noble.
And presto! out went Handel, Bach, Mozart, opera, ballet, and the Cha-Cha-Cha, for that matter. No time to get distracted with “silly little love songs.” These godless, beauty-killers seemed determined to give la bella doncella de la libertad (Lady Liberty) the death of a thousand cuts. But, unbeknownst to them, they were also teaching us children that beauty is of all currencies the most golden, the sacred extravagance of the truly free, like the costly ointment in Mary’s alabaster box. It helps explain my fascination with beauty. And why, for me, beauty is next to godliness. It is why I am dazzled still by the inner and outward beauty of my wife, and why I have long now made peace with those pretty shoes of her with their strange capacity to multiply themselves and take up (hoard?) evermore closet space (exactly where am I supposed to put my tennis shoes?).
I am a convert to Rose and Lily Christianity. It should not surprise the reader that two of the names given to our Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture are, “The Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys” (Song of Solomon 2: 1). Christ the Rock is also Christ the Rose, Christ the Lily. Similarly, our Christian witness in the world needs to be strong and reliable, like a rock, but also lovely and charming and fragrant, like a rose. Those qualities can co-exist; they are in fact ideological cousins; they want to get along. I saw them perfectly blended in the regal elegance of my beautiful mother who was, more importantly, my ever-present and always reliable pillar of strength.
As it happens, said virtues are artistically hinted at in the Rose of Sharon sobriquet. The roses of Sharon are delicate, beautiful roses growing under the generous shade that comes courtesy of mighty branches extending out from enormous oaks. No wonder that the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valley becomes an insuperable description of Jesus and His character, and also a promise of what He intends His children to become. As a line from a David Foster song puts it: We were born to shine!
Will you take the Rose and Lilly challenge today?
