Night blooming cereus ~ Midnight resurrection
I've added a new photo as a my profile picture, a no-flash late night photo of a night blooming cereus - that wonderfully fabulous succulent-cactus that blooms only at night, on a cycle that someone told me is lunar-based. It's flower, fit for crowning Carmen Miranda, and large enough, is like a firework explosion.
Every day I pass by Punahou school - which takes on a bit more than a full block, failing to notice regularly the green cacti lining its wall. Yesterday, I saw a couple taking a photo during the day, but was on the way home from dinner and a movie with a friend when he pointed out the cereus, and its beautiful blooms - a block long spray of flowers fit for a royal parade.
Of course, everything creation sings God's praise, but this reminds me a little of the story of creation - the waiting, the ignoring, the ignorance of the fomentation occurring - until suddenly one finds the most extravagant message of love blooming our of the middle of the night, having been there all along, though we never allowed ourselves to imagine the outpouring of
such a gift, nor that it would be from a prickly cactus, or happen in the darker hours - but isn't that when the brightness of the light of Christ is most piercing, when it emerges in contrast to what we perceive as our darkest night?
Maybe we need to become like Nicodemus, and when our heart is troubling us at night, go and seek out the One who brings our heart to bloom.
