“Tulips”
“…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b
One of my fondest childhood memories was a visit to the Keukenhoff tulip gardens in Holland. There my love for tulips was born. Every spring I eagerly await their appearance in all their elegant beauty. I love the solid colored ones for their simplicity. But, I have to confess; My very favorite tulips are the variegated ones, where two colors feather together in combinations of pinks and whites, peaches and whites, and yellow and reds. They are spectacular! Those are the ones that are put in the center of the arrangements I make to beautify my home. The solid ones are secondary, and used to “fill in” the gaps.
<
The interesting thing about the variegated tulips is that the feathering of the colors is actually caused by a disease called tulip breaking potyvirus. (I’m not a horticulturist, so I pronounce that last word as “potty-virus.”) While those spectacular tulips may be beautiful on the outside, they are weak and dying on the inside.
<
<In the early 1600’s tulipomania (tulip mania) broke out in the Netherlands, and elsewhere to a lesser degree. Charles MacKay, in his book titled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowds describes a popular history view of the frenzy that followed:
“… the tulip annually increased in reputation, until it was deemed a proof of bad taste in any man of fortune to be without a collection of them…The rage for possessing them soon caught the middle classes of society, and merchants and shopkeepers, even of moderate means, began to vie with each other in the rarity of these flowers and the preposterous prices they paid for them. A trader at Harlaem was known to pay one-half of his fortune for a single root, not with the design of selling it again at a profit, but to keep in his own conservatory for the admiration of his acquaintance.”
The variegated varieties were the most coveted, commanding thousands of Dutch florins at a time when the average annual income was 150 florins. Land and homes, and even for some, everything they owned, were traded for these bulbs. Till finally, in 1637, people began to suspect that what they coveted and sold all for wasn’t as valuable as they thought.
The crash came abruptly. Fortunes were lost, people were ruined, and the Netherlands was thrown into an economic depression that lasted for several years following. That which was so coveted was, in the end, a diseased, weak and dying tulip, and it destroyed many in the end.
The traditional meaning of the tulip is “perfect love.” The variegated tulips, the diseased ones that were the most prized, have the meaning “beautiful eyes.” How appropriate that the tulip originated, not in Holland as is commonly believed, but in the Middle East. It was here, in the same region, that God, in His “perfect love” provided a Savior for each one of us in His only son, Jesus Christ, who was crucified, died, and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins.
Now when I look upon the variegated tulips in my flowerbeds and in my arrangements I will wonder, what varieties of “tulips” do I covet the most and spend my life pursuing? What is it that I see as beautiful in my eyes? What is it that I put in the center of my life? In the end, are my most prized “tulips” really just like the variegated real ones, beautiful on the outside, but diseased, weak and dying on the inside? Did I miss pursuing the truly beautiful “tulips,” the solid colored ones, expressions of love and caring for God and toward others?
A quote from Charles MacKay: “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one!”
Father,
I praise You for Your perfect love for me, shown through Your son, Jesus Christ. Thank You also for this gift of life. Give me the wisdom to spend it wisely, pursuing that which is truly beautiful in Your eyes. Help me to show Your love to others.
In Your son, Jesus’, precious name, Amen.
Link to the Keukenhof tulip gardens, Enjoy! http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/250/Park-Photo-Galery.html
Sources: Wikipedia, http://www.andrewtobias.com/ExPopDel-5.html
