The Color Purple

"We need some flowers on our porch," my husband said, referring, I think, to an empty, yellow floral can on a table.  I reminded him that the seasonal flowers I had stored in the basement were misplaced when he reorganized everything down there. I had searched in vain, but was unwilling to unpack all those unidentified boxes!

"Well, we could use those," I  said, pointing to our flowering quince bush, loaded with pink blossoms. We were sitting in the back yard, so I went over and broke off a frond.  Funny, it wasn't nearly so full-looking by itself.  I gathered a few more, some of which sent petals showering to the ground. All together, though, they made a nice bouquet and brightened up the porch corner.

Each day when I step out the front door, I notice that my irises are fat with buds, some about ready to burst into bloom!  I can't wait for their lovely, velvety purple to blanket the iris bed.  They are a cheerful greeting each morning and a warm welcome at the steps when I come home.

I'm seeing purple everywhere this spring! Many fields and lawns locally are covered with a purple mass that just says Spring!  It looks like what we called Sweet William when I was a child. The curious, blooming plant known as henbit is actually a member of the mint family.  Although many consider them weeds, they are tolerated and enjoyed until mowers eliminate them or they are overtaken by grass.

The plant's photogenic appeal caused me to try to capture the fields of lavender that lay like spilled purple paint spreading over the landscape, but my phone pictures didn't adequately portray their beauty. However, a good shot of them appeared in last night's paper!  I guess I need a news camera!  Last fall I took a picture of a field of sunflowers, and not long ago a picture of same appeared in the newspaper showing that someone had won a photo contest with a look-alike photo of the field!  ("My" sunsets or sunrises, courtesy of a newsman's camera, often appear in the paper!)

I even saw a Purple Martin flitting in and out of a bird apartment house yesterday!  They are not actually purple, but perhaps their black sheen appears purple, or even a purple/black in mature males.

Since it is almost Easter, I think of another color purple: The purple robe that was put on Jesus during His scourging before the crucifixion.  His tormentors were mocking the idea that He was a king, so they placed a crown of thorns on his head and put a robe on him that was the color of royalty. That much they had right, though, because He is Royalty.  I often wondered what the purple cloth meant that is hung on a cross during Easter and Lent season until I realized it is a symbol of royalty.

When Jesus was comforting His disciples before he went away, He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." John 14:12.

This is often interpreted to mean greater in magnitude. There are millions of Christ-followers in the world today, and the world is being reached in greater magnitude that it was when Jesus was physically on the earth. Like my bouquet of flowers and each frond that looked spindly by itself, bunched together they were a thing of beauty and inspiration, the petals falling to the ground like words of the gospel showering the earth.