These delicate little flowers grow on a shamrock plant. There are purple shamrocks with light purple flowers and green ones with white flowers.
They are very active plants - each day the leaves open in the morning and close when it gets dark. My green shamrock became overgrown, so I cut it back and as you can see, it is already blooming and baby leaves are quickly growing back!
The leaves will last awhile, but the flowers bloom delicately then wither quite soon. Grass and flowers of the field are often used in the Bible to remind us of the brevity of life. For example:
"13As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts." (Psalm 103:13-18)
and again here:
23 "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
And this is the word that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:23-25)
Like grass, people seem to flourish without effort for a time. It's quite hardy - grass regrows when mowed or chewed down, and springs back when stepped on. And flowers of the field are plentiful and beautiful:
“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." (Luke 12:27)
It's humbling to be compared to grass, yet in our hearts we sense the truth. As time goes by we notice that people pass on, but the world continues.
However the word of the Lord is not temporary, like our lives. It endures forever, and so does His love. We can take hold of something more powerful and lasting that makes part of us imperishable. We can read God's word and seek His love, taking within ourselves something that endures and is everlasting.
We each have our own beauty in our time - just like the flowers of the field, just like my shamrocks.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Eternity is set in our hearts for a reason, so that we will reach for and take hold of that which lasts.
* References are from the NIV
