Stelltjie adored proteas, but when I was still a just a child, the fascination passed me by. Then she left and all the Ma Stella things became priceless.
Which made me scratch and find a lot about proteas that she may never have known.
The most beautiful thing is that there is a certain assault, a certain type of attack, a specific frightening thing that a protea seems to be able to endure.
Wildfires.
Runaway, thoughtlessly started, terrifying in size, smoke-black and soul-stinking wildfires.
How sad that proteas can’t lift their roots to knee height and seek earthly shelter.
That they can't scream for help or put on an anti-fire jacket.
That no oxygen masks have yet been designed for the survival of proteas in wildfires.
But did you know that the intense heat that quickly consumes other wildflowers, becomes an unexpected greenhouse for wildflower proteas?
Because when the heat is at its most scorching, it makes the protea's seeds shoot wide like flower popcorn all around her. And when the heat subsides and the first rain comes, the protea is still there, surrounded by that which the fire from brought forth from her.
Her living testimony that grows and will shoot their own seeds when the wildfires come again.
This week has been one of endings and beginnings for many.
For some as basic as moving house.
For others as stressful as a new job, a new position, a new boss!
And for others, as devastating as a last breath.
Endings and beginnings were as commonplace to our biblical friends as they are to us. Except for Jesus.
Because our Lord has neither a beginning nor an end.
His lasts and firsts were simply measured by the understanding of those who were around Him, because from eternity to eternity there are no chapters in His existence.
His Majesty untouchable by flames of reproach and hate speech and the suffocating smoke of others' opinions.
And when He was in the middle of hell on earth, He shows us what it is to shoot seeds of hope, rather than to destroy.
"When they go low,
we go high.”
Michelle Obama
It's not politics, it's a biblical principle.
If the flames should threaten to engulf you today, may hope shoot recklessly from you for later days' enjoyment.
Protea projectiles.
"So, we're not giving up. How could we!
Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us,
on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without
His unfolding grace.
These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times,
the lavish celebration prepared for us.
There's far more here than meets the eye.
The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.
But the things we can't see now will last forever."
2 Cor 4:16 The Message
Your inspiration for the week: Fires
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