message board

your email

books

music

communities

join the conversation

write for us

add your site

    

 

  GINKWORLD: VOICES: article 

 

 

[site search]   [ report a dead link] [ message board] [add your voice]

The Messy Church on Mission at the Manger

by doug jackson

second baptist church

www.2bc.org 

 

 

Michael Womack, a member of 2BC and a mainstay of the church choir, makes his living as a horticulturist. Part of his job involves writing a weekly column for the local paper, in which he talks about the care and feeding of various types of plants. A recent screed turned topical for the holidays, giving insights into the poinsettia plant. Michael gave two explanations of the Christmas flower’s rosy hue.

 

Theory number one goes like this: a poor Mexican girl named Pepita wanted to attend Christmas eve services at her village church, but grieved that she had no gift to place before the Christ-child. Her cousin, Pedro, attempted to buck her up with the argument that even the humblest offering would be acceptable to El Nino. Accordingly, Pepita stooped beside the path that lead to the chapel and harvested a handful of weeds. When she dumped this noxious bouquet before the manger, it burst into flaming crimson blossoms, showing that Jesus had indeed valued her gift by its intent rather than its market value, and that is why poinsettias bloom in mid-winter and are dubbed Las Flores de Buena Nocha, the Flowers of the Holy Night.

 

The alternative account runs something like this: poinsettias are photoperiodic, blooming in response to the short days and long nights of winter. What we call "flowers" are actually bracts, specialized leaves designed to attract pollenating bugs to the dowdy yellow blossoms, or cyathia, in the center.

 

Now, my question is not which explanation is correct, but which is true. Or, to put it another way, which do you like better? One is factually verifiable and accounts for certain physical phenomena. The other is almost certainly legendary and tells us something true about Jesus. I think Michael sums up nicely when he ends his article by saying, "The poinsettia is an easy plant to grow. It’s brilliant red bracts will fill your home with color and stories."

 

Color and stories: far better things to have at Christmas (or any other time) than data about buds and bracts. And it is the story that reminds me of another story, one that is factual but whose truth outweighs its historicity. Three wise men appeared at Jesus’ home and left gold, frankincense and myrrh. Of course, these are much higher-ticket items than roadside crabgrass, but I see the justice of Frederick Buechner’s comment, "The gifts the three Wise Men, or Kings, or Magi, brought to the manger in Bethlehem cost them plenty but seem hardly appropriate to the occasion. Maybe they were all they could think of for the child who had everything."

 

Inappropriate gifts: what, after all, does an infant do with metal and perfume? Superfluous gifts: what, after all, does the Son of God really need? Yet acceptable gifts, and for the same reason as Pepita’s dandelions: they represented a desire to honor the Savior.

 

As we light the Wise Men’s candle this Sunday, and read once again the account of their trek to Palestine, be reminded that what really matters is not what we give, but that we give; not what we do for Jesus, but what he does with what we’ve done.

 

 

  

  

shameless ads 

[click here to place an ad with ginkworld]