I love having fresh flowers on my kitchen table – it brings me joy.  Since I’m not terribly fond of kitchen work, this splash of lovely helps my attitude when once again there is a pile of dishes to be done.

You would have thought then, when I started gardening a few years ago, I would have filled my raised beds with flowers. Nope. Just vegetables. My purposes for gardening were practical – I wanted to eat organic salads as often as possible. And I have and I’ve loved it. But, not everything I’ve planted has grown. I have had no success with squash or melons and I’m pretty sure it is because they are not being pollinated, which is usually done by bees, birds and even the wind moving the pollen of the boy flowers to the girl flowers. Without this transfer of pollen, certain plants will not produce fruit. Having learned the hard way, I am now planting flowers along side my lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. When my first calendula bloomed I was very excited to spot a bee making a landing.  Watching this little critter crawl around my flower it occurred to me that God made flowers necessary. And that strikes me as extraordinarily kind.

Like me, bees are attracted to colorful and fragrant flowers but for them it is about food needed to make honey. I am drawn to flowers because they delight me, a seemingly less essential purpose.  But is there more to it then that? It is telling that the first garden was designed with trees and plants that were both pleasing to the eye and full of good food to eat (Genesis 2:10). In fact, all of creation is loaded with boundless, breathtaking beauty that provides us inspiration, pleasure, refreshment and even comfort.

Have you ever noticed how flowers show up in abundance at funerals, a small joy and a sweet comfort in sorrow? And at weddings they congregate and bare witness to that extraordinary moment when two people commit to live the rest of their lives together. Flowers serve on many occasions to declare a special moment in time, but can I go so far to as to say the beauty and wonder of creation is a necessary and real food for our souls? I say yes – without beauty our souls will not thrive because we have a true need for it.  OK … of course we CAN thrive without beauty, because nothing is impossible for God, but it’s not how we were designed.  We were given five senses for a reason:  that we might know God.  Seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and touching beauty are all pathways to knowing our beautiful eternal Creator. I read these words by Thomas Moore* 20 years ago and have been discovering their truth increasingly as the years go by:

Without a constant and intimate relationship with nature, divinity is not fully revealed. 

Unfortunately, we foolish humans fall in love, or lust, with the beauty He gave to draw us to Himself. We crave His lavish creation instead of Him. This is a misdirection of our affections, also called idolatry – and a topic for a future blog. For today, lets go back to flowers. Or puppies. Or mountain ranges. Take a little extra time today, this week, and enjoy God’s artistry. Praise and thank Him for the beauty you find. Your soul will be better for it.

*A former monk turned psychotherapist and author of Care of the Soul.

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