Welcome, Baby Zinnia ~ Prayers for Little Girls

The homely wild flower photographed here, Mexican native Zinnia Haageana (ha-gee-aa-nah), was discovered by the 17th century German botanist, Johann Gottfried Zinn. Seeds from those humble plants have since been endlessly hybridized into dozens of colors and kinds, which seed companies today call fabulous. 

Then someone wrote recently, sharing the happy news of the birth of their baby girl called, Zinnia. Sweet name for a sweet girl! In flower symbology, Zinnias can be sent to those who need strength to endure or who are absent and suffering trials of the heart. Baby Zinnia's birth and naming might prompt us to prayer for the world's little girls.

Pink Zinnia,
for the girls not allowed to twirl,
or pick a dress,
let alone a husband.

Yellow Zinnia,
shine your bright light
on smile-less faces;
dry tears;
heal disease.

White Zinnia,
soul-restoration
for girls sold or stolen
into slavery.

Red Zinnia,
give a jump to the
symbolic hearts that have
stopped beating.

Orange Zinnia,
for the girls who
have never seen a classroom,
whose minds, like rain forests,
are filled with secrets, solutions and remedies.

Purple Zinnia,
pamper each third-world girl,
like the first-world girls
we call princess.

Father Stephen Morris

Zinnias and Remembering

Yellow Zinnia with Bumblebee

We hear a great deal about Alzheimers these days: that at some point our brains start to break down and we lose the gift of remembering.  Human beings seem to be made for remembering. A nursing home I visited recently has an activity in the afternoon where the folks gather and are invited and led into remembering.

God remembers. Pope John Paul II said that we are one of God's thoughts; one of God's heartbeats. An omniscient God isn't going to forget even one lovely thought us. Some Christians like to think of God as being good at remembering our sins - especially the sexual sins. And that on judgment day God will remember them all out loud and we'll either go to heaven or hell based on those sins. So much for the drained Blood of Christ, heh?

Anyway, zinnias are these wonderful summer annual flowers that delight us. The zinnias we know today, the giant ones with the pop out colors, are hybrids of native zinnias. As hybridizers we're co-creators with God. I investigated the symbolic meaning of zinnias and found that the yellow zinnia means remembering. Remembering is simply the action of our minds which brings thoughts forward. Remembering and resentment or bitterness go hand in hand, but remembering and joyful gratitude do all the more.

In the presence of the yellow zinna - remembering:

my walking feet

the persons who delivered me

the watery-womb which carried me

every kindness ever done to me

every gift given

the movement of baptism waters

my First Communion Day

for love in my life

the times I avoided death and

the healing of old wounds

the survival of cruelty and abuse

the animals I have known

the surrounding colors

the air I breathe

the beating of my heart

that I can create and

health has been restored

that there is friendship in my life

that I'm able to read these lines and

delight in music

for the gift of taste

for growth in goodness

for laughter

for the relieving gift of tears

for poems and hymns

the heron on the stream 

the fruit ripening

the air-cleaning leaves

the blue moon

the summer season

a sudden storm

a sibling's love

July's lilies

the greeting, good morning

sorrows and trials that invite humility.

for angels and saints
bread and wine
every good meal
for the students I've taught
for the children of friends

You take it from here...

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Zinnia elegans

THE GARDEN IS WINDING DOWN. The leaves of plants and trees are exhausted from their hard work. But there are still some late blooming flowers and some others hanging on that delight us. We might yet find a zinnia like this one blooming - Zinnia Elegans (Elegant) and a bumblebee with folded and translucent wings adding a sound dimension.

These are difficult days. A woman writes of her tearful sorrow, hearing of the death of yet another baby left in a sealed up car. The depraved death-menace of ISIS. The 40,000 traumatized children of Gaza in need of psychological healing after weeks of rocket-rain. A conflict in Eastern Ukraine so intense the dead cannot even be claimed for burial. The plague-like spread of Ebola, 

But then there is this little garden-burst of yellow. A reminder of how lovely the planet could still be if we'd only stop fighting. Saint Paul reminds us of these things in his letter to the Philippians:

Do all you have to do without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be blameless and harmless, faultless children of God, living in a warped and diseased age, and shining like lights in a dark world. For you hold up in your hands the very word of life. (Philippians 2: 14,15)

My brothers and sisters I need only add this. If you believe in goodness and if you value the approval of God, fix your minds on whatever is true and honourable and just and pure and lovely and admirable...and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8,9)