I was out and about and I thought I would take a few pictures of the poppy fields near our house. It's amazing how these beautiful flowers just grow randomly along the side of road and in nearby fields. Poppies bloom in the spring and have long been used as a symbol of both sleep and death: sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of their (commonly) blood-red color. In Greco-Roman times, poppies were used as offerings to the dead. Poppies are also used as emblems on tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep. This aspect was used, fictionally, in The Wizard of OZ to create magical poppy fields, dangerous because they caused those who passed through them to sleep forever. A second meaning for the depiction and use of poppies is the symbolism of the bright scarlet color as signifying the blood sacrifice of Christ and the promise of resurrection after death. Love that!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
1 Peter 1:3-7
No comments:
Post a Comment