PEACHES AND GLADIOLAS

I'm blessed to have a number of "real" artists as friends. Since I "paint with words" and not brush and canvas, my part is to enjoy the masterpieces others create. 

I was honored today with a visit from Sarah Lin-lu Daku and her husband David. Sarah is from China and her gallery of paintings numbers more than 200 including the signed original she presented to me in the accompanying photo to grace my "Eagle Summit" home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

The story behind the painting sparks my ideation for this post. David bought a bargain box full of gladiola bulbs last year but unfortunately reaped a discouraging crop failure of weak, stunted blooms. When autumn came and his garden was put to bed for the winter, he cut off the dried leftovers but didn't bother to dig up and discard the useless bulbs.

This spring those previously disappointing bulbs happily came to life and surprised David with a massive growth of mature, fragrant, flourishing gladiola blossoms. He picked an armful of the multi-colored extravaganza and brought the bouquet indoors to his wife who, of course, immediately began to memorialize them with brush and colors trying to match the Creator's marvelous natural display.

Sarah deliberately chose a Chinese vase with images of peaches for her painting since the destiny of the painting was to be a hot-off-her-canvas friendship gift for me.  What's all this about peaches?

 

In Chinese folklore peaches are a common symbol of luck and good fortune. They are thought to confer the mystic virtue of longevity on all who eat them--a wish for a long and healthy life. Customarily given for birthdays to the beloved and highly respected elderly in the family, they are a common symbol in Chinese art. Grown throughout China, peaches are native there and mentioned in Chinese historical writings as far back as the 10th century B.C. They were the favored fruit of kings and emperors. Parts of the peach tree are used in traditional medicine, especially the stone or peach pit. The wood or timber is reputed to keep away demons, so peach branches are laid at the entrance to houses at New Years. "Peach Blossom Land" is a Chinese term for a place or haven of peace--an allusion to Heaven? I'm happy to embrace all the above symbolism since I am navigating longevity already through the generous, loving gift of God. What a beautiful reminder this painting is which now prominently hangs in the entrance foyer wall to my home!

The verse from Galatians 6:9 comes to mind in spiritual analogy for David's experience with his gladiolas. To everything there is a season. God's way through His natural creation is not to be in a hurry but to await everything in its season. We tend to be impatient if something isn't happening in our time frame. The dark and cold and frozen soil of winter may be needed for the transition to flourishing growth and blossoming--in nature and in our lives. It takes the fullness of time. "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we don't give up!" Let's not give up on anything prematurely or on anyone who may be a late bloomer or who needs our patience to wait for them "to ripen" and start bearing the fruit we think should be developing by now.

Of course we enjoy the gorgeous peach blossom in springtime.  But that isn't the ultimate stage of nature's sequence we are looking for. The luscious taste bud feast of the autumn-ripened peach fruit is what it's all about. With the perspective of the sweep of a human lifetime, God's expectation for the Christian is not only to bear fruit as would be expected during youth or prime years but right on into longevity. Psalm 92:12-15 "The righteous one will flourish like the palm tree [see my book STILL MORE for my research on the analogy of the palm tree], he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they will be fat and flourishing [another translation renders this: full of sap and very green] to declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him."  

I'm hoping to live long enough to give the Lord a whole basket full of tree-ripened peaches of good works to please Him (Ephesians 2:10) since that appears to be what He expects of His children, no matter what season of life.