Have you ever heard of a flower clock? I thought I knew all about clocks, starting with the big grandfather clocks all the way down to small wrist watches. Yet when someone asked me if I had ever heard of a flower clock, I had to answer no.
The man who made the flower clock lived many years ago in Sweden. His name was Carolus Linnaeus, and he is famous because he was the person who developed the present scientific method of naming plants and animals. In this system each living thing has a name with two parts. The first part is for the genus (group). The second part is for the species (kind).
Even as a boy Mr. Linnaeus loved and cared for plants. His garden was full of rare and unusual plants. It was in this garden that he had his flower clock. The hours of the clock were marked by plants having flowers that opened and closed at exactly the time of day where they appeared on the dial of the clock. He had different kinds of plants with flowers that opened from three o’clock in the morning until twelve o’clock midnight. Almost every hour was marked by the opening of a different flower. The last plant to open was the large flowering cactus at midnight. Then until three o’clock in the morning, the great flower clock rested. What an usual clock it was, and what a smart man Mr. Linnaeus was. He knew each flower and what time it usually opened and closed its petals. Each hour had a different beauty and fragrance all its own.
The life of a Christian should be like a great flower clock. Every hour, every day and every year should be bright and beautiful. The life of the Lord Jesus was like this. The description of Him in Psalm one sounds something like the flower clock, doesn’t it? “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Psalms 1:33And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3).
Are we like this? We should be. The name “Christian” means Christlike. Yet how often we are not like Christ since the things that we do are not beautiful or fragrant. It is His life in us that is the beauty and fragrance of God’s garden. Do we display it every hour of the day?
ML-09/02/1984