This afternoon we visited the Shrine at Bahji. It was the first time since last summer that I could walk around the gardens without a jacket. The weather was perfect and the garden was at its height (so far this year anyway). There is an embankment that runs parallel to the Collins Path on the left as you approach the Shrine. It is planted with red geraniums, and today they were in full bloom. Deep scarlet flowers in the bright afternoon sun, standing out against their dark green leaves and the tan earth. Interspersed between them, slender young cypress trees, waving gently in the breeze and reaching above the embankment to a mild blue sky with spilt millk clouds.
The gardens are very egalitarian. Plain old everyday flowers like geraniums and pansies perform priveledged duties in hedges, points on stars and even pots on pedestals. They share beds and irrigation hoses with noble and exotic looking plant-beings and all play their part in creating a fitting setting for the holy places. It is a reminder not to be discouraged by comparing ourselves to others who exceed us, but instead to just dedicate the best of ourselves to the Glory of God.
3 comments:
Selvi...I love the pictures of the low and alive red geraniums being glorious. It was exactly what I need to hear this morning. I've been reading a book about an incredible Chinese Christian. It's been super inspiring...but also blah. I feel discouraged and dumb when I hold my life up next to his. I will never be able to accomplish the amazing things that he accomplished when he was 16. But I can love God and know him right here. And I can be given to Jesus today. That's a joy and a delight. Thanks for reminding me. Love you.
Aren't all the flowers special and exotic to someone? Let's see ... who would find geraniums exotic? Kenyans? I don't know, but they're a temperate flower, right? So then the tropical ones are exotic to us (me), but normal to others, with the temperate stuff being exotic to them! Oh, the gardens are so beautiful with just about everything it seems in bloom right now! Even the geraniums look stunning to me now!
Okay, here's Mara getting back to work... (ahem, Selvi, my vote is that you keep your 'time' totally off - that way it may not be so apparent that I've checked your blog when I should be otherwise occupied!).
Exactly the kind of thing I meant Anna.
And Mara, good point about exotic being a relative term.
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