“Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.”
A poet once said, “Flowers are Nature’s scripture.” I should like to change that a little, keeping the same meaning, but so that you can see it more plainly— “Flowers are God’s Handwriting.” So, when Jesus said, “Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin”: He meant that God had stooped down and written lessons on the ground for us to learn. In every flower God has written something, and if we are wise enough to find it, we shall be wiser still for remembering it.
Let me take three flowers, and tell you the lesson which I think God has written in them.
1.—Lilies of the Valley
You know them, of course, with their tiny bells of pure snowy white, hung upon a slender stem. They are so graceful and so modest, sheltering among broad green leaves, and always loving the shade. Their gentle, pale faces turn towards the earth, and their beautiful fragrance spreads all around.
It always seems to me that God has written this in lilies of the valley— “Be true, be pure, be modest, and your life shall be sweet and beautiful.”
2.—Wallflowers
These flowers are honest, brave things—just what you would expect from their name. They grow best on walls and ruins, in dry barren spots, where no other flower could find a living. Their flowers are brown, of the color of faithfulness, like the eyes of a collie dog. They are hardy, wiry, and contented. You may neglect them as much as you like, but they flourish. They have a heart like oak, and a constitution like iron. Wallflowers are the little brown friends of duty.
I think that God has written this lesson in them— “Be faithful, be honest, be brave, and do your duty.”
The difference between being bad and being good is just this; the bad man does what he likes, the good man does what he ought.
A camel driver once said to his camel, “Which do you prefer, to go up hill or down hill?”
The camel replied, “If I go up hill, shall I have to carry anything?”
“Yes.”
“Shall I have to carry anything, if I go down hill?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t mind whether it’s up hill or down hill, for I shall have to carry something, either way.”
The wallflower always carries a cross. It belongs to the cross-bearing family. Look at its brown petals, they are in the form of a cross.
Some people think that all heroes are in red, like soldiers. But I know heroes who just go stumping along to their work in plain brown corduroys, every day of the week, in rain or sunshine. I know heroes within four walls who do the dullest duties and seldom get a word of praise. There is more heroism in the plain brown clothes of the friends of duty than ever we dream of. “Be faithful, be honest, be true, and do your duty.”
3.—Pansies
Pansies are for thoughts. They are like Joseph’s coat, of many colors. They may be yellow, or white, or purple, or blue, or gold. You can have them growing, if you will, all the year round. And the more they are moved, the better they grow, and the richer their colors. You must pick their flowers as fast as they come, or you’ll get very few. They ask for a lot of care. If you forget them, they will become very plain-looking, not to say common-place.
It seems to me that God has written in the pansies, as plain as could be: “Think and remember, but above all remember to think.”
Stephenson was asked how he invented his locomotive? And his reply was, “By thinking, thinking, thinking about it.”
The Bible says that we shall grow like Jesus if we think about Him.
We are told, in one place, to think about all things that are lovely, so that we may grow lovely too.
“Remember Me,” said Jesus, because He knew that if we did we should be able to grow the best of flowers in that inner garden of ours, which He has given us to enjoy. For, do you know?—another name for Pansies is Heart’s-ease, and if you want to grow Heart’s-ease in your very own garden, you must go and get Forget-me-nots out of the Bible, and plant the Heart’s-ease right in the middle of the Forget-me-nots. Then it will grow.