Some call them Naked Ladies. Others invoke the adjectives Resurrection, Surprise, or Magic.
A more formal name seems to be Amaryllis
Belladonna. They are lily-like
flowers (but distantly related to lilies), with large, trumpet-like
blossoms. They certainly look like
lilies to me, no offense intended to the botanists.
I first noticed these mystery flowers when they appeared one
summer in my backyard. I do not know how
they got there. This summer there are several
of them, each summer a few more. They
are beautiful. But even more, I find
them a wonder. Unless you were careful to
notice their abundant but brief and non-flowering leaves at the beginning of
the growing season, you would have little expectation that in the hottest and
driest time of the summer you were to be blessed by an eruption of beauty in
your yard.
These flowers bloom on tall stalks that break through the
dry ground without any leaves or other trace of the plant at all. It took me a season or two to discover their
abundant leafy growth in early spring.
From that spring verdure the plants gather and store in their bulbs the
strength that lies dormant for many weeks after the leaves have all died away.
The tall, slender stems of late July and August, with
their lovely pink blossoms but no foliage of any kind, I must suppose give the
flowers their name, Naked Ladies. The
variety of other names testify that these flowering bulbs suggest many things
to many people. If you did not know that
they were there, hiding in the ground, you would have a surprise when the stalks rocket up in a matter of days to bloom in
abundance. From a plant that seemed to
have died off with the spring, the resurrection
of blossoms arises at a time when the most intense heat of the summer dries out
many other flora. From barren ground,
with no apparent preparation or support, the blossoms appear like magic.
I can embrace all of these images and their accompanying
names, to which I would add another—at least another metaphor if not another
name. They remind me of the house of Israel.
Long ago Israel thrived in the land called Canaan. Twelve Tribes, descendants of the twelve sons
of Jacob, named Israel by the Lord Jehovah, put down deep roots and flourished between
the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and into surrounding
territories. As they stayed faithful to
God, kept His commandments and ordinances, Israel grew and prospered.
As with the plant I have in mind, Israel’s time
of flourishing was relatively brief. Before
the end of the eighth century, B.C., Ten of the Twelve Tribes had fallen away
from the faith of God into the paganism of their neighbors. Their lands were conquered and the people
carried away captive and out of the further knowledge of history. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin alone
remained, the Jews of today. In time
they, too, were driven from their homeland and scattered all over the world.
For thousands of years the house of Israel has
remained in captivity and Diaspora. All
but the Jews have remained unnoticed, and the Jews have been subjected to waves
of persecution that has risen and ebbed but not wholly ceased.
Yet Israel
has lived, strength acquired long ago awaiting the season of sprouting and
blossoming, as foretold by numerous prophets, ancient and modern. Through Moses, the Lord declared to Israel ,
That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity,
and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all
nations, whither the Lord thy God
has scattered thee. (Deuteronomy 30:3)
Through the prophet Ezekiel,
For in mine holy mountain, in the
mountain of the height of Israel ,
saith the Lord God, there shall
all the house of Israel ,
all of them in the land, serve me: there
will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the
firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. I will accept you with your sweet savour,
when I bring you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I
will be sanctified in you before the heathen.
(Ezekiel 20:40, 41)
When Jesus Christ visited His believers in America , shortly following His resurrection,
teaching them about the house of Israel He promised, “I will gather them in
from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfill the covenant which
the Father made unto all the people of the house of Israel .” (3 Nephi 16)
In our day, modern prophets of Jesus Christ have declared
the approaching fulfillment of the covenant:
We believe in the literal gathering
of Israel
and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes . . . (Articles of Faith 10)
No comments:
Post a Comment