Resplendently tenacious
Vegetation thriving on a derelict wall, Scarborough
In what contexts is God calling you to bring hope?
Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope 1 Chronicles 29:15
In a derelict corner of Scarborough, where demolition has left a space now used to park vehicles, Nature has once again proved itself to be resplendently tenacious. As is so often the case, here human activity inadvertently mimics the ecological characteristics of natural habitats just enough to allow plants to root and become established. In this instance, Buddleia is thriving amidst a riot of vegetation which is exploiting the cracks and crevices of a small ledge at the top of a brick wall. The amount of growth is astounding and testament to the effectiveness with which these species exploit opportunities to take hold and reproduce.
I deliberately set this vivid image against the desolate quote from 1 Chronicles. This is a blunt text that cuts right through to the despair I feel, in my worst moments, as I look to the future.
I write this the day after a Conservative MP has been stabbed to death in a Methodist Church. The COP26 climate conference is shortly to convene in Glasgow for a meeting which is highly unlikely to save us from the worst effects of the climate crisis, at precisely the same time as the global geopolitical situation is deteriorating, with the Superpowers sabre-rattling in the Pacific and moving us towards the unthinkable outcome of armed confrontation. Here, all the indications point to the government planning a return to austerity, with all the social, economic and psychological anguish that this will wreak upon those who are already struggling and vulnerable, at the same time as the effects of Brexit and Covid have disrupted supply chains, increased costs and sent energy prices soaring.
Living in the shadow of such massive challenges to the common good, hope seems in short supply.
Yet the image of the resplendently tenacious plants draws my mind to the Bible, and to how Jesus responded with quietly tenacious hope in a context which would, for his contemporaries, have felt every bit as overwhelming in its magnitude and daunting in its impact. Looking at lush vegetation in a parched landscape he observed:
“With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:3-32
In other words we are to emulate the Buddleia: in barren and bleak contexts where hope has shrivelled, we are called to take every opportunity to let love germinate in the cracks and crevices of daily life, wherever and whenever they are to be found. Indeed we are called to grow and thrive in just such hard and uninviting places that they will be transformed by the vibrancy of life lived within the resplendently tenacious grace of God.
Seen from this perspective, hope is blossoming all around us and each of us has a part to play in this holy task.
