While there were historic feats to be appreciated, my greatest lesson for the day was in the gardens of Cantigny. We had a beautiful day for touring the gardens as it was not too hot and not too cool. In walking through the vast and beautiful grounds, I was struck yet again with the endless creativity of our great God. It was pansy season when we went and there had to be hundreds of thousands of pansies. In fact, that was the main flower in bloom during our visit. Granted, there were some others, the poppies and lilacs were also in bloom, but not so abundantly as the pansies. I will admit at this point that lilacs are among my favorite flowers. I never really gave much thought to pansies, other than that they were a cheery sort of flower. However, after seeing so many of them in a seemingly endless variety of color combinations, I have a new respect for this small, seemingly cheerful flower. It is the simple beauty of this flower that seems to bring a sense of cheer. It is simple and yet complex in the extensive variety of color combinations available. As we took in each new color combination, I thought how each was just as beautiful as the last. Even in looking at thousands of these flowers, I was not bored, but intrigued with the reflection of our Creator to be found in this simple, but exquisite flower.
I used to think that God had included so much in beauty, variety and vastness in His creation in order to display, in some small measure, a proof of His greatness to the world. While His creation definately accomplishes this, I am now aware that God, in no way, shape, or form, needs to prove His greatness. He is God. He is great. It is because of God's greatness that He creates in the manner He does. His creation does not make Him great, His creation is as it is because He is great. God's creation was not made to reflect Him. God's creation reflects Him because He created it. This may seem like a logistical clarification - but it is an important one. If all God created was only for the purpose of proving His greatness, it could be limited to a certain number of creative acts that would be sufficient to prove the point. However, God's creation is not limited in this way. God's creation has a variety and depth of beauty unparalleled by the the whole of all artistic works produced by man over all of time. God's creation has such diversity and variety that one could not begin to discover the full spectrum of all He has made in the span of the entirety of time. God's creation, in its vastness, is (simply put) beyond human comprehension. God's creation is what it is because God is who He is.
So, what does all the grandeur, the limitless wonder, and the majestic vastness of God's creation have to do with the pansy? Just this, it takes all of creation to give us a glimpse at the reflection of our great God. The pansy through its simplisity and beauty reflects to us a momentary breath of the rest and refreshment ultimately found in God alone. The vast variety of pansies reflects only a hint of God's limitless creative power. The detail in the artistry of the pansy gives us a fleeting reflection of the completeness of God and His work. Our delight in the endless array of these simple flowers with their exquisite beauty lends us only a glimpse of the endless wonder there is for the soul whose only pursuit is to continually be in the presence of God.
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