When I first saw it in the backyard, I was horrified. My peony bush was infested with ants! They were crawling all over its tightly wadded flower buds… which, I knew from the year before, bloomed in a most striking fuchsia color.
Upon closer examination, however, the buds appeared to be healthy.
So what were the ants doing?
After some online research, I was relieved. My peony bush was fine! The ants were simply licking the sweet nectar juice that oozes from the surface of the buds.
I also learned something else—something that got my juices going. Ants are believed to have a symbiotic relationship to peony flowers. Sometimes the nectar runs so thick, the buds don’t easily open. Ants are thought to help the peonies flowers by thinning out this sticky layer.
Additionally, the presence of ants on the peonies may even scare off other insects who are harmful to the peonies!
A Lesson From Nature
I see human hearts to be a lot like peony flowers—at different stages holding so much potential. Many are tightly wadded. At the least, when we first meet someone, there are usually walls. So many layers of caution (sometimes rightfully so) and defenses. Yet, the sweetness of that person… the one God crafted with love… oozes forth. There is hope. There is beauty. There is always potential in a flower bud to burst into a glorious flower.
I was born into religion, which is anything but gentle. It tends to “manhandle” tender buds, prying open people’s ability to think for themselves, tearing apart what makes them special.
This isn’t Jesus.
The Jesus I am now learning to know sidles up to people where they are, deeply sees them, and by nature of His appetite for sweetness—can naturally remove whatever is holding a person back. He did (and is still doing so) with my heart.
It really is refreshing that we don’t have to put on airs. It is not necessary to force our beliefs. All we need to do, is what we naturally should love to do. Bit by bit, a human heart opens only to love. It is made strong only by gentleness. And eventually it blooms with beauty when the season has come.
“Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women?
Where has your beloved turned,
That we may seek him with you?”
“My beloved has gone down to his garden,
To the beds of balsam,
To feed in the gardens, and gather lilies.
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine,
He is the One who grazes among the lilies.”
~Song of Songs 6:1-3 ~