This low-to-the-ground April flower is Anemone Blanda. It's also known as Grecian Windflower. Anemos is Greek for wind. It is native to south eastern Europe to the Middle East. Resembling a daisy with finely cut leaves, rather like flat-leaved Italian parsley, the attached adjective, blanda, means charming, pleasing, mild. I must remember to place a labeled marker in the ground as the flowers last only a short time before going dormant until next spring. I enjoy remembering there are underground roots and rhizomes resting and renewing themselves. The plant's short appearance reminds me of Jesus' teaching:
Think of the wild flowers, and how they neither work nor weave. Yet I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like one of these. If God so clothes the grass, which flowers in the field today and is burned in the stove tomorrow, is he not much more likely to clothe you, you little-faiths? You must not set your heart on what you eat or drink, nor must you live in a state of anxiety. The whole heathen world is busy about getting food and drink, and your father knows well enough that you need such things. No, set your heart on his kingdom and your food and drink will come as a matter of course. Don't be afraid, you tiny flock." Luke 12: 28-32 (J.B. Phillips Edition)
There was a battering rain last night and I'm just back from visiting to see how the patch of Anemone Blanda faired. The flowers had closed up to self-protect, and I expect as soon as there's some light in the sky, they'll open again. They'll have weathered the storm.
It's said there are four basic feelings: happy, sad, angry and afraid. Notice three of the four are negative. I don't know how, "Don't live in a state of anxiety," and "Don't be afraid" is understood by the world's poorest people — the ones who live on the world's garbage mountains, but they often appear to be happier than those of us who live in the world of the thingdom come.
There are more guns in this country than people. The shooting massacres are so frequent now most are un-reported or appear in the news cycle only briefly before the next one occurs. Why so many guns? It's not about hunting and it's not really about "protecting our rights." What's underneath the love affair with guns? I'd suggest the issue is a spiritual one. Jesus talking about the field flowers is a segue to the get at the real issue: "Don't live in a state of anxiety...don't be afraid you tiny flock."
We live in a scary world and must take care. Jesus understood this, living in a world of imperial power and surrounded by enemies who wanted him dead.
But at Calvary and Easter Jesus looked evil, death and everything scary in the eye, going down into the deepest place of human depravity (hell) and came back. As disciple-wannabes then, ours is a religion which is ready to go down into our deepest fears. We have this major gun problem (even the nation's children are killed) because we're afraid. The spiritual question is then: Afraid of what? Afraid of whom? Asking those kinds of questions can be terrifying, requiring a depth of self-awareness. We might even become angry with the persons who pose the question.
What are you afraid of is a national question. It is a Church question? Of course fear is the real spiritual issue, otherwise, "Do not be afraid" would not appear in the bible 365 times. Right out of the gate, the first thing the angel says to Mary in the Annunciation is, "Do not be afraid." And the first thing the night angels say to the Christmas shepherds is, "Fear not!" And the first thing the angels say to the myrrh-bearing women is, "Do not be afraid." And the first thing Jesus says to the apostles in the Easter appearances is, "Do not be afraid." And maybe that's because when heaven breaks in on us we're afraid of what's going to be asked of us — that we fear being asked to do it differently or to go another way, or to surrender something (especially some security which prevents us from throwing ourselves into God's embrace.)
