Water Lilies

One plant in the Botanical Gardens stopped me dead in my tracks. It always amazes me how diverse the flora and fauna of a region is, but this particular plant blew me away.

I'm sure you have seen one before--a water lily. So far, so good. But this one is a GIANT Victoria water lily, which can grow over 9 feet in diameter. They produce a flower that lives only lives 48 hours. The flower begins life as a female, attracts beetles to its center, and then closes and traps the beetles. In the morning, it releases the beetles, which then cross-pollinate the plants. But the flower is now male. Soon after, it wilts and dies. Wow. What a life.

You can't choose who your parents are, what country you are born in, what language you grow up speaking, or whether you are male or female. But I have often wondered what it would be like to be a man, to experience life from a male vantage-point. And there were certainly days when I wished my husband could have traded places with me for just one day--(I would have picked a 'birth' day I think...or maybe a day during menopause.)

Even though I lived with a member of the male species for over 35 years, he remained a little bit of a mystery to me. We thought differently, reacted differently, felt and loved each other a little differently. He was as 'male' as they come. I dare say, even a little 'macho'--a true Latin and a true gentleman--vive la difference!

But God sees us, like the giant water lilies, as both and neither male or female. Unlike me, He understands both because He created us uniquely and awesomely just the way He intended us to be from the beginning of time. Human. Male or female. But not, thankfully, as beautiful as they are, a water lily.

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28