The first chill of October crept in overnight and surprised me. As I walked into church on Sunday morning, wishing I had thrown on my heavy sweater, a yellow spot of color in the grass caught my eye. Was that a stray snapdragon? Did it not know that summer was over? I hurried on into the warm building but I couldn’t get it off my mind. That beautiful, fragile blossom. Soon the winter rains would beat it down into oblivion, and then, the snow would cover it over. No one would ever see it again.
So a day later, after a mild rain, I thought, “Why not?” There it was, just waiting for me. I gently spaded it out of the soil, lifting each root tenderly, and set it into a favorite pot. I brought it home and potted it in rich fresh dirt, gave it a good soak, and set it out on the deck to catch the last few days of the sun’s warmth. I will watch the weather and bring it inside before the first frost. It just might live and thrive through the coming dark of winter. It just might be my one reason for getting up on the morning of… say, January 13. Who could know?
We live in a culture of confusion. Most of us affirm the value and dignity of every human being, but we don’t always think about why. We just “feel” that this is “right”. But who or what gives us permission to think this way? If all is a throw of the dice and the heavens neither see nor hear, who cares what happens to that snapdragon, or to those among us who are disparaged in some way? What about the widow and the orphan? What about the racially marginalized? The handicapped? The helpless and the hungry? Those whose political views differ from ours? Who cares?
We might find our snapdragons in the most unexpected places. Let’s not forget to stop and scoop them up. January might be a long, cold month this year.
