The service was
over - it seemed all too brief for it took less than twenty minutes, and we all
filed solemnly to where all the flowers were laid out. Another human being had
slipped away from this scene, with its reminder that we are made from dust and
to dust we return. and for a moment, as others may have been thinking, one
wondered about the meaning of life. And then I looked again at the glorious
flowers that carpeted the courtyard, with all their perfection of colour and
variety, and wondered: Could these indeed be the result of some chance
arrangement of particles having no purpose other than perhaps to provide food
for some other form of life?
æ
Most
of my working life was spent in engineering which left me well acquainted with
how things are made. In my case it was the designing and then the production of
the parts, which meant the stamping, pressing, rolling, or the stretching of
heated blocks of steel into the various shapes and sizes ready for machining
with the subsequent assembling of them into the end product, something which works.
Research and Development was an important part of seeking to make
improvements in efficiency and lasting quality to satisfy customers. Many minds
were involved in all this from beginning to end.
æ
Nothing
was really left to chance. So what of these flowers? What purpose do they
serve?
æ
Superbly
made in almost infinite variety, could ever any one of us have designed them?
And with a liking for art would it be possible for me, or anyone else for that
matter, to design others?
æ
Of
course there is much more to flowers than drawing of them. We produce very
passable inert imitations. We have also, by cross fertilization, extended their
variety. But to make a living reproducible flowering plant goes beyond the
imagination and skill of the artist and into the realm of the scientist.
Creating the plant and causing it reproduce seed for the germination of others
like it is many steps beyond our imagination and ability. Some seeds are so
fine that they almost need the aid of a microscope to see them, and for such to
contain all the coding instructions to grow into a large plant is just another
wonder, at least to me.
æ
But
why flowers in the first place, if not to give pleasure to the ëeye' of a
creative mind which appreciates their beauty? It is harder for me to believe
that all that we see around us (indeed, of what we know about ourselves)
originates by accident rather than the working of the brain of a personality of
which we are miniscule models.
Jesus
drew the attention of his disciples to the flowers in the field, saying that Solomon
in all his glory was
not arrayed like unto these - and how could he possibly have known that unless
he had seen Solomon at some time?
æ
It
was because Jesus was God.
*Maybe
that sounds far-fetched, but that is what Jesus claimed of himself. He called
God his
Father
and told his disciples that if they wanted to know what God was really like
they needed
to
look no further than himself. He said, He and the Father were one and the same
person. The works they had seen him do, the miracles of healing, raising the
dead to life again, and controlling the elements were evidences of the same
creative power which made the world and everything in it.æ He was there from even before the beginning.
Furthermore Jesus
said that he would give his life for all who believed in him and would rise
from
the dead. Peter later asserted this was God's vindication of what He had come
to do. It was to restore man into a new relationship with Himself. That is you
and me. All that we have to do is to repent and seek His forgiveness for our
sins and acknowledge He is Lord.
æ
The
claims are stupendous but they are the basis of the Christian faith which still
draws people from around the world, from all walks of life, including, one may
add, many scientists. It is worth asking why Christ's death still works in
peoples' hearts and changes their lives.
æ
The
core message Jesus brought is in John's Gospel, for God so loved the world
that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might not
perish but have everlasting life.
æ
Maybe
just thinking of those flowers will make you pause and wonder at the mystery of
all the claims which surround Jesus Christ. How God is speaking in love to us
through Him.
æIt includes all of us even today.
æ
* "Those
who reject the doctrine that Christ is God are still confronted by the
realisation that, after the lapse of so many centuries since His appearance on
the earth, He is believed in and worshipped as God by a Christendom which
embraces the greater part of the human family." from Lectures on the
Divinity of Christ by Canon H.P.Liddon in 1866.at Oxford
University .
The wise men
bringing their gifts to worship the infant Jesus were guided by a star, but how
they found where he actually was must still have required some diligent
enquiry. It seems God will take us so far, but still leaves room for us
to do something for ourselves.
What was the
significance of these gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh?
We all know gold is precious but the inclusion of the two spices appears
to indicate they were also highly prized.
No sooner had the
wise men left on their return journey than Joseph was warned to seek
asylum, for Herod was intent on killing Jesus. By the next nightfall
Joseph was in flight to Egypt with his wife and their child - not much time for
preparation there!
The gifts now
became of more than just symbolic importance for they had assumed a practical,
survival value. The spices being essences, along with the gold, were easily
transportable with tradable value that would support them for a good while
ahead. God ensured that they were not 'penniless' refugees.
The Christian is
called to travel by faith and dependence on God. The gifts we bring when we
worship Jesus as Lord may often find a use for which we could never dream.