Our Flower Garden Near The Driveway

In our flower garden near the driveway we have some interesting plants. They are all planted in what was once polluted soil. In our early days in this home the area would not allow any plant to flourish at all. The previous owner had use the soil as a dumping area for gasoline, car cleaners and the like – cars were more important than plants. Add to that the shaded area and few plants seemed to make it at all.

Now it is very different. Through my wife’s care and an amazing amount of work we have a rich growing area.

One flowering plant growing in this area is tall and growing taller each day. It is not beautiful during the day – in fact it looks like it is not really going to make it too long in this life. However, somewhere around dusk it begins to do its stuff. The flowers stretch to there fullness and stand erect. The white trumpets stand out. Then the smell comes from them in a potent way – filling the driveway with an aroma that is amazing. Just a few stalks take over the entire area. If people could bottle this smell they would make millions.

On the Net I found the following…

Nicotina Nicotina alata (white)
Positive qualities that this flower essence promotes: Peace which is deeply centered in the heart; integration of physical and emotional well-being through harmonious connection with the Earth.

Patterns of Imbalance that this flower essence overcomes: Numbing of the emotions accompanied by mechanization or hardening of the body; inability to cope with deep feelings and finer sensibilities.

Photos of the Nicotina alta -

What an amazing contrast to the side of the driveway from earlier days!

The lesson that I am drawing from this is the one that connects my spiritual life and the transformations to that of the world around me. When God came into my life he made a difference. I was saved from my life of sin and given a brand new life – that life is described by Jesus as “life more abundantly”.

In 2 Corinthians 2: 14-17 you can read about the way that God transforms our lives.
14But thanks be to God, who made us his captives and leads us along in Christ's triumphal procession. Now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume. 15Our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing. 16To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? 17You see, we are not like those hucksters--and there are many of them--who preach just to make money. We preach God's message with sincerity and with Christ's authority. And we know that the God who sent us is watching us.

Did you notice…

• God uses us to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume...
• Our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God...
• This fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and by those perishing...
• The smell is …To those who are perishing we are a fearful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved we are a life-giving perfume...
• And Finally… we know that the God who sent us is watching us...

Last evening as I stood beside the Nicotina plant and took a long slow breath – the smell was just amazing. What an amazing plant.

This past week I was with a “Nicotina” kind of person. Their life had been transformed by God alone…. They were so different from others in the group we were with. Each and every thing she did touched others and reached out to help. It was a blessing to watch her and be in her presence.

Such a contrast with some of the other flowering Christian plants I have watched and even “smelled”.

Oh God may my life be a sweet perfume too.