A LESSON FROM THE ROSES

My assigned chore recently was pruning back the rose bushes surrounding our home.   How beautiful the roses are with their vibrant colors, their red and pink faces shining delicately out from the dark  green leaves, lovely to look at as they gently share their fragrance and loveliness. 

  

As I worked carefully among the branches an interesting  thought came to me. The roses display their beauty confidently and don't seem inclined to try to convince the other flowers to be just like them.  They grow alongside the other flowers around our home without comment, without competition, without criticism, without bragging or gloating.

I suppose these thoughts may have been triggered by a recent encounter where a gentleman was trying to convince me to embrace his  religious thought.   While there was no specific criticism of my own religious understanding or my view of God and Life, it was pretty obvious from the stern looks and rather harsh warnings about God’s wrath and my obvious unwillingness to understand that God punishes people like me, revealed a  contempt for my “obvious ignorance” and misguided faith and understanding.   

The experience sort of shocked me, made me wonder, Have  I done the same thing from time to time?  Surely not as harshly or pointedly,   accompanied by the stern looks and sense of judgement that I was receiving this day, but have I been so judgmental?   Being convinced of the truth and simple logic that Jesus revealed in his teachings and as taught in Christian Science,   and because of wanting to share the wonderful healing effects realized by my family and myself over the years through the application of those truths, I admit I may have been tempted to spend time convincing others of how wonderful it is.

But on this day, marveling at the beauty of the rose, I remembered Mary Baker Eddy's counsel that : " No reproof is so potent as the silent lesson of a good example. Works, more than words, should characterize Christian Scientists. Most people condemn evil-doing,evil-speaking; yet nothing circulates so rapidly: even gold is less current. " (1.)

  I thought how silly it would be for that Rose to bend down to the beautiful Daylily to convince her to become a Rose, maybe something like this: 

“Well, yes Dear, you would have a few thorns but everyone would want to take you home and put you in a vase.  We roses are wonderful!!  We make lovely gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and are especially helpful to a young man courting a young lady!!   I expect we are responsible for many hugs!!  We are God's favorites!”  

No indeed, the roses seemed very content to glow their particular splendor in the midst of the variety of other fauna.  No conversion speeches needed!!  Just by being there, sharing their lovely fragrance and delicate beauty,  glorying in the sunshine, swaying in the gentle breeze, seemed to be quite enough to keep the Roses happy.  I could see and feel that simply by “Being” they were uplifting and demonstrating God’s presence as “all harmonious”.  

It is believed that roses have been around for over 35 million years, according to fossil evidence.   Maybe they have lasted that long by minding their own business, fulfilling their life purpose  just by being splendid and appealing.    

Matthew 5

That realization convinced me that it would be sufficient  for me, too,  to just do my very best to demonstrate the qualities that I am trying to live, those same qualities we find in the Beatitudes: humility,  love, mercy, purity, tenderness,  peace and righteous and  let the observer judge whether that is something worthy of emulating. I have found it is difficult enough to do that without also trying to drag reluctant others along.

The Bible tells us there are a diversity of gifts,  some teachers, some preachers, some prophets, some wise,  some interpreters, and so on.  (2)    Apparently we can all do whatever we are called to do.   There may be others on the human scene that are better looking, wealthier, more talented, more spiritual, funnier , better educated.    But for each there is opportunity to be “the rose” in their own garden of life. 

In his rounds, Jesus of Nazareth walked through the countryside and was available to teach and preach. But the most fascinating thing about Jesus was that he demonstrated more than he talked.  He didn’t get on a platform and threaten people to listen, to change or to follow him.  He proclaimed that “ behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  ( 3)

 His acts of healing, uplifting and supporting were so much more compelling than words could be. Although his Beatitudes contained in the Sermon on the Mount provided such wonderful inspiration, it would  have been all for naught  if he wasn't actually demonstrating the truth that he taught. In humility, meekness and purity, he gently demonstrated the healing effect of his understanding of God, and taught his disciples to do so as well.

In her Bible companion book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,  religious pioneer Mary Baker Eddy writes: 

“Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth.  Man,  made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.” 

As we follow the spirit of Jesus’ Beatitudes, we can trust others to God’s loving care.

Jesus said: “Follow me.”  


(1.)     Miscellaneous Writings .. page 126

(2.)     I Corinthians 12:

(3.)     Luke 17:12

(4.)     Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 516

Lesson from a Snake

 As I sat watching the evening news recently I was shocked at the breaking news story revealing several important government figures  being caught in extramarital affairs.  In just that one newscast there were also several other reports concerning  people in various compromising situations including infidelity, cheating, stealing, lying, fraud and other problems, illegal and/or immoral.   In particular the CIA Chief in the U.S. was featured on every newscast for having an extramarital affair.

How greedily we sometimes latch onto these situations, waiting in eagerness for the next juicy detail, impatient for complete information on exactly what happened, and the media is only too willing and eager to supply the complete, sordid story.   

My heart goes out to all of the individuals involved in these stories, but particularly the head of the CIA and the woman involved in the incident, as well as both of their families.  After 35 years of service to this country,  serving in dangerous war zones, separated from family and friends for months or years at a stretch, enduring the hardships that maybe only military  veterans can appreciate, the man is pilloried for an act of indiscretion and the woman with whom he was involved has had her life jolted as well.   I am sure their personal suffering is sufficient to make them examine their actions.

As I watched this story unfold I suddenly had a 

mental image of Jesus kneeling, clad in his tunic and sandals, thinking, writing in the dust, as the group of self-righteous “Scribes and Pharisees”, holy men,  displayed  a woman who had been caught in adultery, asking Jesus what should be done with her.    Even centuries later, human nature has not changed very much.  His compassion for the woman resulted in an answer to the accusers to look within their own characters to see if they too might have sinned.  They all walked away considering their own shortcomings and let the woman go free.

While I knew that what our government official and the woman had done was wrong according to our moral standards, I felt that the press and all who were judging them so harshly,  holding them up in front of the world as spectacles,  as people to be judged, certainly paralleled those self-righteous men of centuries ago. Sort of a “look what I found” experience. Throwing stones of shame and blame.

In another incident just recently a radio station team in Australia, innocently playing a practical joke, caused the suicide of a dedicated nurse who felt she had let her patient down by disclosing unauthorized medical details to a hoaxer.   Those responsible have been taken off of the air and I am sure they are very distressed at the results of their actions.   

All such broadcasting incidents can have far reaching effects.   But, you may be wondering where the snake comes in, since this piece is titled Lesson from a Snake.

Well, here he slides in now…  He is the devious little guy that is responsible for so much distress and heartache in the world.  The snake made his first Bible appearance in the allegory of creation contained in the second version of creation in the Bible.  You will probably recall that Creation was described in the first chapter of Genesis, where God created everything in His image and likeness, spiritual and perfect.  And He saw that it was very good.  But the writer of the material version of creation, a slightly different view as presented in the second chapter of Genesis, told a story very similar to the mythical Pandora’s Box.  There God somehow made man from “matter”.  He man out of dirt, then made woman out of man and finally  made their children out of a woman.  And there the snake enters… Stage Left.

Now no offense to snake lovers but my observation is that snakes hide, move silently, can strike without warning.  They are usually camouflaged so that we don’t readily see them for what they are, they have no hands, no arms, no feet, no voice… so how could they harm us?   What a great vehicle the writer of Genesis 2 used to convey the image and appearance of evil.   Evil, clothed as a snake, suggested to Eve that sin and disobedience were quite okay, what could go wrong?!!     He seemed like such a friendly sort!! Saying all of the things that Eve wanted to hear.   Oh how subtle is the snake, how tempting his suggestions, how innocent his arguments,  and oh how  hard it can make us fall.

Recently, I heard a story about a man that saw a snake in a pet store.  It was a poisonous snake, but beautiful.  He handled it in the store and fell in love.  The snake seemed to love him too.  It wrapped itself around him, let him caress it, they were a “couple”!!  For a long time the snake and the man were best friends, inseparable,  sleeping together, traveling together, the snake was a real pet owner’s dream.  Then one day the snake bit the man.  The man was aghast.  How could you bite me?   I can’t believe it, we’ve been friends for years.”   The snake looked up with glassy eyes and said, “Well, you knew I was a snake when you bought me.”

The Lesson from the Snake is twofold:   

For broadcasters and those who enjoy wide national audiences for their commentary, remember that the story you are telling has repercussions in the lives of others.   Reporting the facts is one thing but when glorying in the drama, secretly shooting pictures through kitchen windows to see if you can see guilty husband and shattered wife struggling to repair the damage done, deep in the despair and grief that the snake has left in his wake,  "Remember the Pharisees."   When you go home at night, are you happy about your contribution to life and love?     

For the rest of us:  Instead of listening in fascination to every detail of the evils that befall others, passing judgment, falling for what the snake did to others,  we would be well advised to watch out for the snake that may be coming to tempt us, that innocent looking situation that seems so harmless,

In Matthew 7,  Jesus gives us sage advice about “snake talk” when he said:   “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Watch out for the snake in your experience!!)  And, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Don't be a judgmental Pharisee!) 

Religious pioneer Mary Baker Eddy, a devoted student of Christ Jesus, aware of how stealthily the snake can disguise itself as a harmless thought, then tempt us,  alerts us to watch our thought, before we buy the snake and take it home.  She says:  

Wrong is thought before it is acted; you must control it in the first instance, or it will control you in the second.   To overcome all wrong it must become unreal to us: and it is good to know that wrong has no divine authority; therefore man is its master.  * 

* Message to the Mother Church 1901 -  page 14