#14. God Makes Beautiful Things Out of Dust.

Poppies!

 Every time I write the word, I have to use an exclamation point.  

Poppies!  Ever since the first time I saw them growing in a field in France, I have gained a new appreciation for this simple flower. 

<<Le petit prince, qui assistait à l'installation d'un bouton énorme, sentait bien qu'il en sortirait une apparition miraculeuse, mais la fleur n'en finissait pas de se préparer à être belle, à l'abri de sa chambre verte.  Elle choisissait avec soin ses couleurs.  Elle s'habbillait lentement, elle ajustait un à un ses pétales.  Elle ne voulait pas sortir toute fripée comme les coquelicots.  Elle ne voulait apparaître que dans le plein rayonnement de sa beauté.>>

“The little prince, who was present at the first appearance of a huge bud, felt at once that some sort of miraculous apparition must emerge from it. But the flower was not satisfied to complete the preparations for her beauty in the shelter of her green chamber. She chose her colors with the greatest care. She dressed herself slowly. She adjusted her petals one by one. She did not wish to go out into the world all rumpled, like the field poppies. It was only in the full radiance of her beauty that she wished to appear.”  
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

The little prince’s flower may not have thought much of the poppies, but I think there’s something really cool about them…the way they seemingly pop out of nowhere, adding their burst of color, without caring what else is around them.

According to people who actually know things about flowers, poppy seeds can lie dormant in the ground for a very long time.  If the ground is disturbed, then the seeds can germinate, and the poppies will spring up!

The ground in Northern France and Belgium was devastated during World War I with the effects of battle after battle…the artillery damage, the gunpowder, even the fallen soldiers themselves.  The soil was so acidic that almost nothing else could grow there.  But come spring and summer, the barren battlefields were filled with poppies!  Major John McCrae even wrote a poem about them.

So to me, poppies have become a beautiful symbol of life and resilience, even if they do come out into the world a little rumpled.

But on my most recent trip to France, as I took some time to reflect on the work that God is doing in France right now, I began to think about the poppies in a new way:

What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

-1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Only God can make life spring up out of dust.  Still, He calls us, the body of Christ, to participate in His great work by sowing seeds, by watering them, and by trusting Him to make them grow.  Our God is the Lord of the Harvest, and He is in the business of restoration and reconciliation.  There is no ground too hard or too dry for Him.  And sometimes it’s the ground that looks the most unhospitable that will bring the most beautiful blooms.  

"All around

Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in You...

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us..."

-Gungor, "Beautiful Things"

"It's from the deepest wounds

That beauty finds a place to bloom..." 

-Jason Gray, "Nothing is Wasted"