Hydrangea
This spring I bought a hydrangea for my wife, Debbie. When I went to the nursery to purchase it, the attendant showed me a variety of colours from pink through a neutral cream tone to a quite intense blue. I chose a blue one. With its large clusters of small flowers it was quite showy.
I thought the hydrangea was a good choice because I knew if we wanted to change the colour we could do so by adjusting the chemical nature of the soil. Hydrangeas are characterized by their ability to change colour according to the environment in which they are planted. It all has to do with the presence of aluminum in the soil and the acid/alkaline balance. Acidic soils give the flowers a bright blue tint, neutral soils reduce the intensity of the colour to a pale cream, and alkaline soils produce tones ranging from pink to purple.
We have other flowering plants around, but regardless of the chemical nature of the soil, they remain consistent in their appearance. Red roses are always red roses. Yellow daffodils can be counted on to be yellow. But hydrangeas are flexible. They reflect their environment.
All this makes me think of my friends. Some are more like hydrangeas, others more like geraniums. Some change depending on their environment, others are always the same no matter where they are. The one crucial difference between hydrangeas and humans is that the plants really have no choices regarding their response. If we add aluminum sulfate to the soil, a hydrangea will involuntarily turn blue.
Humans have the privilege of choosing their responses. Admittedly, some things will predictably trigger anger, or sorrow, or joy. But while we can’t control the emotional part of our response, we can control the behavioural aspect. You may be angry, but you don’t have to lash out. You may be grief-stricken, but you don’t have to be permanently incapacitated. You may be happy, but you don’t have to be giddy.
At this point, you can’t be sure where I’m going with this. Am I going to talk about the importance of fitting in, of being able to adjust to the people around you so you can build deep relationships? Am I going to suggest that such adaptation, in fact, impedes deep relationships because you can never count on people who make such adjustments? Am I going to rant about allowing ourselves to be controlled by our emotions? I could probably do any of these.
Today, I happen to be thinking about issues of character - morality, ethics, justice and the like - and the tendency for our environment to affect us at this deep level of our identity. After all, when all else fades, it is our character that has the deepest impact on others. Your beauty, your strength, your quick wittedness, and other such things may elicit a momentary reaction from others. But your character is what has the ability to change the life of another, for good or bad.
We live in a culture which just as often celebrates rudeness as respect, bigotry as tolerance, contempt as compassion, selfish ambition as generosity of spirit and so on. God invites us to share His own character. It is in sharp contrast to the one we find around us in human society. And it is only possible because God made it all possible through the death of His Son on the cross.
Ron Hughes
© May 2009
