MUSINGS

THE FATHER’S PLANTING There are some flowers which now survive only in very small numbers. A booklet ‘Britain’s Rarest Plants’ says, for example, that Bristol Rock-Cress is now found only in the Avon Gorge, while Tufted Saxifrage exists only in a few rocky areas at high altitudes in Scotland and Wales—there are probably less than a hundred plants altogether.

It makes one think of the delight God has in the quality of His work, particularly where widespread departure has left but few walking in the truth. Malachi 3: 17 shows how Jehovah cherished His “peculiar treasure” in those who feared Him, and thought upon His name, in a dark day in Israel’s history. Those same choice features were carried through more than 400

years so that they are found unimpaired in the first chapter of Luke. Then, later, the Lord expresses His pleasure in the “few” in Sardis who had not defiled their garments. So today

‘we can think of precious features of faithful-

ness in saints in many parts of the earth, plants of the heavenly Father’s planting, and the quality, beauty, and fragrance of His work in them. Hidden from public notice, all is treasured under His eye, and preserved and nourished by His grace.

FCM