Great Designs

 

This is a photo of the footpath near my daughter’s house. Most of the streets are bordered by these Cape weed plants at present and it looks very beautiful.

In this close-up photo you can see how wonderfully designed they all are: beautifully shaped petals with a rich yellow fading out to a cream tip. When the sun goes down they all close up until morning and I guess that is to protect the pollen from dew and frost, but as soon as the sun is up so are they.

In the garden there are lots of different flowers and these Dutch Iris fascinate me. The material they are made of is so delicate that you would wonder how it can stand the hot sun and yet they thrive on it. When we look at the incredible selection and distribution of the colours here too, we cannot help but marvel at the way God “programed” these plants with the ability to find those pigments and know

how to separate them and distribute them to the petals so cleverly. An insect attracted to this flower lands on the yellow area and makes its way up towards that top “lip.” This “landing pad” is hinged and the weight of the insect lowers it enough for the insect to push under the top “lip” which sits gently on the insects back as it proceeds into the flower, thus the insect is wiped with pollen which it takes to the next flower exactly as God planned. Of course it is all beyond our understanding how God arranged all this and that is why Jesus said “Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they toil not neither do they reap, yet (King) Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these” and He goes on to say that “If God so clothed the

grass of the field” won’t He look after you, so we are not to worry about things we lack, but to trust Him. (If you would like to check that out read Matthew Chapter 6 and verses 30 & 31).

A very long time before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, King David (with Holy Spirit guidance) wrote Psalms 14 & 53 and in the first verse of each said: “The fool says in his heart ‘there is no God” and centuries later Paul, writing to the Christians at Rome said: “ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1: 20) (New Living Translation).  That is why I love studying nature because it is there we are surrounded with His incredible handiwork and can learn to appreciate His wonderful mind which helps our faith to grow.

About 2600 years ago the Prophet Jeremiah in the 17^th Chapter of his book and the 7^th Verse said: “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord, and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a river bank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” (New Living Translation).

Now what I have highlighted above is the ideal way to live because we all want to have a life like the trees Jeremiah described above, don’t we?

Well keep looking closely at the flowers and keep reminding yourself of Jesus statement above about the lilies.

God bless you as you do that.  Tom.