Why
Flowers?
i'm not sure what the immediate inspiration for this
song was, but i recall writing it late one spring two or
three years ago. Living on a farm and having spent a good
bit of my time in the out of doors, much of it alone, i've
seen lots of sunsets, spring colors, autumn earth tones,
clouds, birds, buds, and blossoms. For me, as a Christian,
they are all signposts to the Heart that brought about their
creation.
 The
beauty of nature is a partial revelation of God's character.
If creation, with all its order and color and rich variety,
is an accident -- the mere purposeless convergence of time
and matter and energy -- then, of course, it has little
other than temporary meaning. If though, it was created
and bears the fingerprints of an intentional Creator, then
what must those Hands be that used such power so beneficently.
The Bible teaches that, in creation, we witness the
"eternal power and divine nature" of the God Who created.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim
the work of His hands." And yet, as CS Lewis observes, there
is "that greater glory of which nature is only the first
sketch."
Believing as i do that it was "by Christ and for Christ
that all things were created," i am amazed at His creativity,
at its variety and intricacy.
Many have written on the ways that nature points us
to its Maker. C.S. Lewis wrote that the beauty of creation
awakes in us a "desire for our own far-off country." In
"The Weight of Glory," he explains that
"these things - the beauty, the memory of our own
past - are good images of what we really desire; but if
they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into
dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.
For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent
of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have
not heard, news from a country we have never visited.
Do you think i am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps i am;
but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking
enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and
i have need of the strongest spell that can be found to
wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which
has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years."
"Pleasures," he wrote, which would include enjoyment
of natural beauty, bear "the smell of Deity." They "are
shafts of glory" which, rightly enjoyed, serve as "channels
of adoration," traceable, like sunbeams, to the sun. "Any
patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about
the sun which you could never get from reading books on
astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are 'patches
of Godlight' in the woods of our experiences." This song
is one idea of that we'd find if we followed the sunbeams
all the way to heaven - "a happy God, full of joy and full
of beauty."
i well can understand why God would give us
bread and water,
why He would give us coats to keep us warm,
i well can understand why, from some sense of obligation,
He would give us shelter from the storm....
but why the many colors
that fill our eyes with wonder,
why the sounds of music
that stir our hearts to tears,
unless He is a happy God
full of joy and full of beauty
why seasons, why sunsets, why flowers?
i well can understand why He would
give us hands for labor,
why He would give us means to make our way,
i well can understand why He'd suit us for survival,
but why the part within us made for play?
but why the many colors
that fill our eyes with wonder,
why the sounds of music
that stir our hearts to tears,
unless He is a happy God
full of joy and full of beauty
why seasons, why sunsets, why flowers?
i well can understand why He'd give
us light and shadow,
we'd do just fine with different shades of gray,
i well can understand why He would give unto us vision,
but why the hundred greens of springtime day?
but why the many colors
that fill our eyes with wonder,
why the sounds of music
that stir our hearts to tears,
unless He is a happy God
full of joy and full of beauty,
why laughter, why children,
why songbirds, why kisses
why seasons, why sunsets, why flowers?
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