The Pineapple

My new baby arrived about a week ago. Actually, I never even saw the actual 'birth'. I'm a laissez-faire gardener. The plants that happen to survive my care (if you can call it that. . . 'lack of care' is more accurate) are those that are self-sufficient. That is, they can survive and thrive without me watering them, fertilizing them, or talking to them. Pineapples fit the bill. I hacked off the top of a pineapple over a year ago, stuck it in a pot, and forgot about it. The resulting astonishingly beautiful flower is more of a testament to the resilient inner life of the plant than it is to the skill of the gardener.


But now that it is here, I'm intrigued. There are so many interesting facts about the pineapple. The juice can be used to tenderize meat, clean machete blades, or swab boat decks. It is also said to help prevent macular degeneration, induce labor, even abortion, and cure venereal disease. The leaves are used to make textiles, rope, and thread to bead pearls, sew shoes, make fishing nets, and roll cigars. They even became a symbol of social prestige among the American colonists. Because of their rarity and cost, they were considered an extravagant luxury. All one had to do to achieve rock star notoriety was to display one on the dining room table. 


But the most fascinating thing about the pineapple is the actual botany of the plant. The fruit, the actual pineapple, is a cluster of more than 200 flowers. You can see the first of the flowers beginning to bloom in the photo above. I just went out to check it again, and lo and behold, it is bursting with flowers! How did I never notice that? Here is the updated version:

Now that we are properly impressed with the pineapple's uses, social status and impressive birth and growth progress, here's another fact that will blow you away:  the fruit is arranged in two interlocking helices, eight in one direction, thirteen in the other, each being a Fibonacci number. Yes. Pineapples are math!  A Fibonacci sequence, which I'm sure math majors must already know, begins with zero and one, and then each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. Whoa. Now I'm in way over my head, but apparently the pattern of the way the sprouts grow is a mathematical sequence that is also found in the uncurling of a fern, the flowering of an artichoke, the branching of trees, and the arrangement of a pinecone.


How cool is that?? When I consider the pineapple, I am awed at the complexity of the natural world. Exquisite beauty and intense simplicity are just the ruse to draw you deeper into the mystery that begs to be studied and understood by botanists, mathematicians, and laymen alike. Consider the lowly pineapple. Who knew what was hiding deep within its fruit--math!!


God begs us to consider His exquisite beauty and delve deeper into the mystery of who He is. He draws us to Himself and tantalizes us with the creation He has left with us--it speaks to us, one awesome flower at a time. (He may even speak through mathematical equations, but that's a foreign language to me.)  


All I know is that the inner life of this creation (moi) is buoyed by the fact that God, in His grace and mercy, has not left me to wither and die on the vine, but allows me to survive and thrive, and sometimes, even bear fruit. That Gardener, unlike me, is not a laissez-faire Gardener: He is ever-present, ever-watchful, and never lets His flowers die.


And that is an extravagant luxury I'd pay any price for.


"Stand and consider the wonders of God." Job 37:14