Voila! Violas!

Once in a while one of my horticulturist endeavors turns out right.  Okay, so my beautiful chrysanthemums, massed in the flower boxes with lavender blossoms surrounded by bright yellow flowers on either end  have decided, for the most part,  to turn an ugly shade of brown.  And though the pansies we tried out front have withered, I do have one bright spot.   A hanging basket of violas, like dozens of tiny pansies, greets me every morning with their cheerful, tri-color  faces of purple, yellow, and velvety brown.  Today I counted upwards of a hundred blossoms on it!

I remember when I bought the basket several weeks ago, I was a little disappointed in it.  The shopper in front of me had one that was enviably prettier, already showing blossoms, while mine had only a few pinched, tightly curled buds.  Then one day I noticed a few blooms, and upon turning it around, I could see the side facing the street and the rising sun was plentifully scattered with flowers.  I turned the back side to the sun awhile, and now a colorful array of  violas float airily, cloud like on their slender stems, bobbing merrily in the breeze!

"Consider the lilies of the field," Jesus said, "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," Matthew 6:28, 29.  Jesus recognized the beauty of His creation.  We can't help but appreciate it, too, partly because it is so fleeting.  Jesus said today it is, then tomorrow it is cast into the oven.  I Peter 1:24 says, "For all flesh is as grass, and the glory  of man as the flower of grass.  The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away."

Evidently beauty is supposed to last for only a season, therefore it is to be cherished, (not worshipped).  I see girls and young women who are still in the flower of youth, which they take for granted, not realizing how quickly it fades away. James 4:14 asks, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Our eyes are naturally attracted to beauty, probably because we have an innate longing for heaven where everything is perfect, orderly and beautiful.  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11  that God has made everything beautiful in it's time, and He has put eternity in our hearts

I know my flowers won't last past the first hard freeze, but that just makes me marvel at their beauty even more.  Besides, being in the pansy family, they will likely come back in the spring, just like a resurrection, which Christians can look forward to also when we will be in our glorious new bodies!  That will be beauty beyond compare!