Late Bloomers
The fields and roadsides these days are dotted with
the late bloomers. As the green grasses
of summer have dried brown and stiffened, the asters have topped out and burst
open with purples in defiance of the dying of summer.
The asters are quite unlike the goldenrod that took
over the open and fallow fields already in September. They opened bright, almost lemon-yellow but
soon faded, so now they look like small seas of tarnished gold that will morph
to brown as they go to seed. Asters
bloom one plant at a time, here and there, kind of like splotches of paint that dripped from God brush as he passed by. Each plant holds dozens of deep purple flowers
and so they look so much like neatly bunched bouquets dotting the October
landscape. Their rich color will hold for
several weeks.
Later bloomers, like goldenrod and asters, are
important for the pollinators. They
provide one last feast for those who search for nectar, long after the later
summer flowers shut tight and final, well before the first hard frost.
It is a brave stand that they take considering the
towering maples are already tinged with color, soon to be ablaze, not with a
beginning, but an ending. The asters
stand in the midst of the end of this season’s life and dare to bloom, so as to
sing. All around them the air fills with
autumn’s headiness of ripeness, but the asters breathe the fragrance of fresh newness
of life into the breeze.
I began by considering the asters as the final
harbingers of this season’s life now passing quickly, oh so quickly. But do they speak of a fading, or promise of
a coming? Could they not also be seen as
an earth-bound rainbow – God’s purple bow stretched across the land as reassurance of his promise
that despite the growing chill and coming deep sleep, that life will triumph? I
think it is worth considering.
The one sitting on the throne said, “See, I am making
all things new!” He said, “Write
this: ‘These words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21: 5)
His Peace <><
Deacon Dan
Photo by Esperanza Doronila on Unsplash
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