Amaryllis Belladona (Naked Lady)
John Miller
09/06/21
- Windstream Mail
R E F L E C T I O N S Thoughts on nature and the Christian faith - 9/6/21 ___________________________________________________________________________ "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." - Rev. 3:17 |
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Don't you realize you are looking at a naked lady? Shame on you! Seriously, as most of you know, this is a photograph of amaryllis belladona, the lily-like flower which is commonly called a naked lady. The reason this flower received this strange name has to do with one of the first stories in the Bible. After Adam and Eve rebelled against the command of God, they tried to hide their nakedness by covering themselves with fig leaves. With leaves they felt clothed, without leaves they were naked. So what has that to do with the name given to these flowers? These flowers have no leaves. Like Adam and Eve before their fall, they are naked. Of course, Adam and Eve's poor attempt to clothe themselves did not change their guilt before God. Today, things haven't changed. Modern man tries all sorts of things to hide his nakedness before God. It might be wealth, morality, good works, or simply play-acting, which the Bible calls hypocrisy. What is sobering is that the stinging reprimand of the verse cited above is not directed to the pagan secular world around us, but to a church. Indeed, religion may very well be the most favored leaf mankind uses to hide his nakedness. We think that if only we clothe ourselves with the trappings of religion we can fool God. Remember that it will be to some religious folk that Jesus will one day say, "Depart from me. I never knew you." There is only one clothing that will cover our shame as we stand before God, and it is the perfect righteousness of Jesus credited to our account and received by faith. It is the only leaf available to us to hide our shame, and the good news of the gospel is that it is the only leaf we need. - John | | |
