We have nearly finished with our front yard. The blue evolvulus ("Blue My Mind") is going great guns bordering the schefflera under the front windows and Judah's tabebuias are growing what looks like an inch a day. The desert rose out by the sidewalk has more blooms than leaves. But we wanted something nice next to the front door.
I remembered a red hibiscus by the first house in my childhood memory. What made the memory more special was my mother telling how I, as a toddler, thoroughly misunderstood the name and, seeing a bloom down on my level one day, asked her if that one was a "low-biscus." Then I began to see them around the neighborhood, and found myself wanting one even more.
We were out exploring one day after a doctor appointment, went under an overpass and found a roadside stand—vegetables and flowers. After buying a gorgeous tomato—a one-slicer, if you get my drift—the owner took us to a "triple hibiscus." The plant was already three feet high and sported three colors of blooms, red, yellow, and pink. For $15 we snapped it up immediately.
It has bloomed every day since. But Keith, having grown up in a different part of the country with a different climate, cannot seem to get the name right. "Have you seen your hollyhocks this morning?" he asks on a regular basis. Knowing what he means, I usually just answer yes or no. However, if someone else were around, I might have to correct him or they would be hopelessly confused. I am not sure if hollyhocks even grow in central Florida.
So here is the point this morning. We can look at something and call it the wrong name all the time, but that does not change what that something is. What matters is how the Word of God defines and labels things. What exactly is a Christian? What exactly is a church? What is sin? What is marriage? We could go on and on. We must always be willing to call things what God calls them, what His Word defines things as. I can deceive myself by changing the names of things, but that will not make them right, or change what they are in any sense of the word at all.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isa 5:20).
Dene Ward
I remembered a red hibiscus by the first house in my childhood memory. What made the memory more special was my mother telling how I, as a toddler, thoroughly misunderstood the name and, seeing a bloom down on my level one day, asked her if that one was a "low-biscus." Then I began to see them around the neighborhood, and found myself wanting one even more.
We were out exploring one day after a doctor appointment, went under an overpass and found a roadside stand—vegetables and flowers. After buying a gorgeous tomato—a one-slicer, if you get my drift—the owner took us to a "triple hibiscus." The plant was already three feet high and sported three colors of blooms, red, yellow, and pink. For $15 we snapped it up immediately.
It has bloomed every day since. But Keith, having grown up in a different part of the country with a different climate, cannot seem to get the name right. "Have you seen your hollyhocks this morning?" he asks on a regular basis. Knowing what he means, I usually just answer yes or no. However, if someone else were around, I might have to correct him or they would be hopelessly confused. I am not sure if hollyhocks even grow in central Florida.
So here is the point this morning. We can look at something and call it the wrong name all the time, but that does not change what that something is. What matters is how the Word of God defines and labels things. What exactly is a Christian? What exactly is a church? What is sin? What is marriage? We could go on and on. We must always be willing to call things what God calls them, what His Word defines things as. I can deceive myself by changing the names of things, but that will not make them right, or change what they are in any sense of the word at all.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isa 5:20).
Dene Ward
Comments