A Dandelion & the Divine Breath
Watercolour, 2019 Meditation, Singapore
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The painting of the dandelion came before the words did.
Perhaps the truth is, I am not sure if I could really understand this last surrender; of being ready to be offered to death even as it gives way to new life. I have watched my father slowly fade away over his last 10 years. Some days we pretend everything is fine but some days, it was so hard. I could never fully understand what he had to go through.
Some 4 years after the dandelion painting, I chanced upon Lilias Trotter’s writings which so beautifully described the story of the dandelions’ little lives — lives which could perhaps be translated into ours, as we stand with the dandelions, ready to be offered to the Divine Breath.
Excerpt from Parables of the Cross (1899) by Lilias Trotter:
‘This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowning stage of dying--the delicate seed-globe must break up now--it gives and gives till it has nothing left.
What a revolution would come over the world -- the world of starving bodies at home -- the world of starving souls abroad, if something like this were the standard of giving; if God's people ventured on "making themselves poor" as Jesus did, for the sake of the need around; if the "I"--"me"--"mine" were practically delivered up, no longer to be recognised when they clash with those needs.
The hour of this new dying is clearly defined to the dandelion globe: it is marked by detachment.
There is no sense of wrenching: it stands ready, holding up its little life, not knowing when or where or how the wind that blows where it wishes may carry it away. It holds itself no longer for its own keeping, only as something to be given: a breath does the rest, turning the "readiness to will" into the "performance." (2 Cor. 8. 11.)
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A breath does the rest. How lovely this is.
In Springtime, the dandelion go where the Wind carry them and grow where they land.
In His beautiful time, we go where He leads us and grow where we are planted.
Shall we stand with the dandelions, ready to be offered, abandoned to His divine providence?
Send forth your spirit, O Lord and renew the face of the earth
Psalm 104:30
Behold, He makes all things new.
