Present despair and future glory are just part of the story.
In this world,
We walk on the roof of hell,
Gazing at flowers.
Through these few syllables, Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) masterfully reflected on the ambivalence of human existence. Penned more than 200 years ago, Issa’s exquisite haiku poem is nevertheless very current. Sin has made our formerly perfect planet a living hell, as any evening newscast often highlights. We are often reminded, however, that beauty is all around us.
PROPHETS OF DOOM?
Since Adventism’s early days, we have believed that the time just before Jesus’ second coming would be an era of ongoing social and political upheaval. Jesus spoke about “wars and rumors of wars,” adding, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matt. 24:6, 7). He added, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (verse 8).
Jesus’ words and the confirmation provided by convergent biblical prophecies provide a valuable context to our daily newsfeed. Things are not going well and are not going to get better, the explanation goes, because they are not supposed to. Because Bible prophecy is to be trusted, things will undoubtedly get worse. Almost unbearably worse.
At the same time, that longing for Jesus to fulfill His promises and come back to put an end to the world’s misery could become a double-edged sword. Because Adventists and others long for the end to come, they often find natural or human-made disasters a useful means to the desired end. It is something that, at times, might bring an unhealthy focus to their daily endeavors. Prophecy-believing followers of Jesus may end up stressing the gloomy steps to fulfillment over the hopeful expectancy of the promise. Putting the cart, so to say, before the horse.
FLOWER GAZING
An effective antidote to a detrimental dwelling on the unfortunate events that often pester our newsfeeds is found, to use Issa’s words, in gazing at flowers. The God-given human ability to “create,” contemplate, and share beauty helps us to remember that we are creatures of a powerful Creator and Sustainer that has got “the whole world in His hands.”
Flower gazing may not alleviate the dismal results of sin and its consequences. It does not feed false hopes that somehow humans will eventually get their act together and, by sheer willpower, make this earth a better world. “Flower gazing,” however, may build our hope and trust in ways perhaps no breaking news disaster does. It renews our spirit and helps us to spread not doom but hope.
Some readers have pointed out that Issa’s poem might allow for an alternate reading. In this world, it could be said, humans can spend their lives gazing at flowers, utterly oblivious to the pain and suffering that threaten to stifle them.
But Bible-believing Christians know better than that. They don’t live in a vacuum, as they both acknowledge the suffering and actively work to love their neighbor by alleviating it. They remember, however, that “the world, though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery.”¹ In fact, the world in general and nature in particular testify to “the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.”²
In this sense, flower gazing is not an exercise in escapism but an act of worship. Among other things, it heralds the arrival of an undisturbed, eternal garden.
How will you embrace beauty today?
¹ Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1956), pp. 9, 10.
² Ibid., p. 10.
