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| He is a good thing that looks like a bad thing, on a beautiful thing that may be harboring ugly things... |
A beautiful tulip, like a good life, is short-lived in its glory and when viewed carefully and up close has more flaws and issues than can be seen from a distance. But one cannot get up close and personal with every tulip and so the temptation is to think that my neighbor's tulips are perfect, whereas the ones in my garden are common at best. Neither view is accurate.
The beautiful tulip, also like a good life, is under fairly subtle and constant attack from certain enemies, mostly unseen, which if left unchallenged, will suck the good out, leaving her chewed, and weakened. The common garden pests of an otherwise healthy tulip are slugs and snails. The common garden pests of an otherwise healthy life can include pride, a lack of compassion, vanity and self-sufficiency. All are elusive little beasts and all seem to prefer and ruin the most beautiful specimens.
The beautiful tulip, also like a good life, is under fairly subtle and constant attack from certain enemies, mostly unseen, which if left unchallenged, will suck the good out, leaving her chewed, and weakened. The common garden pests of an otherwise healthy tulip are slugs and snails. The common garden pests of an otherwise healthy life can include pride, a lack of compassion, vanity and self-sufficiency. All are elusive little beasts and all seem to prefer and ruin the most beautiful specimens.
So, it is given to the tulip and the good life a helper, a beneficial irritant, an ugly little trial (or two). He crawls prickly across her petals, reducing the pests that would set upon her to pock and chew and ravage. He moves in and out of her leaves without permission, a benevolent intruder who draws unwanted attention to his hairy little self, shattering the illusion of perfection that would otherwise discourage the other blooms in the bed. His job is twofold. He brings help, and in so doing, he brings humility. That each bloom may bring, unsullied, its particular beauty to its particular place honoring the Master Gardener who plans and oversees it all.
Spiders serve a good purpose in the life botanical.
Trials serve a good purpose in the life ecclesiastical.
(But neither grace the cover of greeting cards and rarely make the top 10 Most Photographed Subjects list!)
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4
Lovely friends, spiders.
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