Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
Poppies are a worldwide ideogram to commemorate the brave soldiers and veterans of war. The back-story of the historical symbol of the “red headed poppies,” represents the blood of the fallen soldiers in the battlefields. During World War One poppies disappeared as they were trampled over but after the war they sprung back gloriously in the same bloodstained battlefields! The bloody battlefields blossomed back into beautiful poppy-fields.
Poppies are a reminder to the battering battles that we face in life. It is our lonely walk in the wilderness, the dark valley of death and the weary wars that refreshing poppies pop up their pretty heads. The bloody battles prepare us for the pretty pathways ahead. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action (Acts 7:22). One irrational and pompous action drove the educated, eloquent, elite royalty Moses into the wilderness for 40 years. Moses took justice in his own hands and killed an Egyptians who persecuted a Hebrew slave. When Moses realised his stupor, he fled to hide in the wilderness. However, our God is a Redeemer. He even redeems the years that are wasted by our own faults and failures in the wilderness. The wilderness was only a bootcamp for Moses to be promoted as the Pastor of the biggest church with ½ a million slaves as members. Poppies blossomed in Egypt, when the Lord took Moses, the murderer, back as the deliverer. In God’s economy the bloody valleys blossom into benevolent blessings.
Three lessons from the back-story of bloody battlefields:
1. Reseed: Poppy seed pods dry and shed seeds around the plant. Most poppy seeds are so tiny that they get blown away easily in the wind and the plants reseed themselves. The sting and stigma that we endure to live righteously will replenish itself to the generations to come. Genesis 9.12: And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. Poppies are perpetual reminders that sacrificial integrity will be reloaded and reseeded as blessings into our future generations.
2. Remedy: Scientists identify opium poppy genes in poppy seeds that make promising cancer drugs. The remedy for the battering and baffling of the battle is in the poppies that spring up from the bloodshed. God used the humbling years in the wilderness to mellow and mould Moses into a patient Pastor. The poppies remind us that the stigma and suffering in the loss and lowliness is only a training bootcamp for promotion.
3. Renaissance:Poppies represent renaissance and the end to animosity and hostility. Painful months or years are not time wasted. The battlefields are jumpstarts to new and fresh beginnings. Moses knew the ins and outs of the wilderness before he took the complaining crowd across the desert. Poppy pods are filled with poppy seeds that are great for baking. Find a better use for the bloody past. Poppies that grow on past pain represent prolific future prospects.
Pin your poppies proudly and the bloody battlefields will bud, bloom and blossom into blessings.
Isaiah 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
Prayer: Father Divine, Your hand will not take me anywhere your grace cannot sustain me. Let me see the poppies among the thorns of pain. Amen
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