Some Thoughts

I’m no poet, I know. But the other day I was thinking about why we send flowers, and what we mean to express by them, and where the flowers really do come from and what they really are meant to express. A man picks a bouquet and hands them to his favorite one: “Look, my Dear! Look at this gift I’ve given you!” “Oh, how lovely they are! Thank you!” The man stands up-chested and proud that he’s joyed his beloved with such beauty–borrowed though it may be. I’m not so obtuse or so immature to think sending flowers is “wrong” or something — please don’t misunderstand. It’s good to send flowers — especially to one’s “favorite.” God’s gifts to us are meant to be appreciated and shared with one another. It’s as the poem says, “I could not love you if I did not love Him, and I could not love Him if I did not love you.” Godly man-woman love is pleasing to the Lord — it’s His design. That’s not my point.

I just wonder how often we hear the twofold love-song those flowers sing, when we do send (or receive) them? After all, don’t we read that, in effect, all the passions and jealousies and joys and forgivings and repentings and desperation and restorations and comforts and longings inherent in man-woman relationships are meant to be an object lesson for our relationship with “our husband, our Maker”? There are other reasons for God to have made man “male and female” instead of mere asexual self-replicating “humans”, I’m sure (as the angels are, and as we shall one day become) — but surely the romantic aspects we experience with one another, all the good and bad, are to point us to him? (Eph. 5:22-33 [show] [22]Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23]For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24]Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. [25]Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, [26]that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27]so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [28]In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. [29]For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, [30]because we are members of his body. [31]"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." [32]This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. [33]However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (ESV)
) Few things in this earthly life are so powerful, I would dare say, as love for our beloved. And few things are more powerful in (or, toward) all creation, I would again dare say, than God’s love for us — “For he did not spare his one and only Son…”

So, next time you send or receive flowers, listen for the two-fold song of adoration…

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Full disclosure: Yes, it’s true. I’ve been seeing Megan for a few months now. (Even asked for her dad’s permission first.) Unexpected, joyous, frustrating, hopeful, confusing…all the things human relationships are.