Flower Power

Someone mentioned recently that she gets flowers every week when she buys groceries. I always notice the floral displays when I shop, but it seemed like a splurge for quickly-fading beauty, so I always resisted them. But today, they had bouquets of roses of every shade at a very small price. I was admiring them and noticed they were further marked down to half off, now that Mother’s Day has passed. I couldn’t resist this time. I bought a half-dozen coral colored beauties with glossy green leaves gathered into a bouquet with a spray of baby’s breath.

They are gorgeous and spirit lifting! I searched around at home and found just the right vase that echoes their lovely hue. It’s like something alive in the room, warm and glowing in the lamp light. Well, with the packet of floral preservative included, they will look that way a little longer. I wondered what was in the stuff, so I did a little reading about it.

The preservative contains sugar, for food, citric acid to facilitate hydration, and an anti-bacterial agent to keep bacteria from clogging up the stem and cutting off the water. The article I read said that the packet usually does not contain enough of the mixture for the amount of water most vases hold, so the solution is weakened, and you might end up having just enough sugar to promote bacterial growth, and not enough anti-bacterial stuff to kill it. In that case you’d be better off with just clear water. Who knew?

Somehow that struck a parallel of spiritual life to me. We are like a flower, one of God’s wonderful creation. We need spiritual food, or the Word, and the hydration of the Holy Spirit for life and beauty. We also need an anti-bacterial agent to keep sin from clogging up our spiritual connection to the Water of Life. This agent is the blood of Jesus, the remission for sins.

I found that water molecules stick together, and as they evaporate, they are pulled upward into the flower petals, keeping them fresh and beautiful. The right amount of acidity makes them stick together even more. Reminds me of the unifying power of the Holy Spirit, and the scripture, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,” Hebrews 10:25.

If the gospel is watered down, like the too-weak solution, it is almost worse than no gospel at all, with just enough sugar to let sin grow, and not enough anti-bacterial power to resist it. Evidently, some manufacturers of floral preservative think consumers don’t know any better, and they get by with providing a too-small packet and too little product to save a few cents. This results in dirty, smelly water and short-lived flowers. A lesson on dead churches and superficial Christianity.