So far as I can remember, the first time I ever noticed canna lilies was when we were visiting Gerald and Linda Heckman back in the early Oughts. They had some growing in their garden at their place about a dozen miles north of Saint Joseph, Missouri. I was fairly amazed at the huge leaves and intense red blooms. I’ve always been impressed by flowers that grow taller than me. Of course, when I was but knee-high to a grasshopper, that was a pretty long list. The list is shorter now but I still find it impressive.

So, when I noticed a couple of volunteer cannas sprouting up through the grass in the alleyway behind our house, I was pretty tickled. I dug them out a couple of years ago and moved them over to a more protected location. The next year, four or five plants sprouted up. This year, it looks like somewhere between fifteen and twenty plants have grown vigorously and bloomed prolifically. They have raised themselves well above the neighbor’s six-foot tall fence. Yesterday, I noticed one bloom cluster soaring above the rest. Its tip is just over nine feet above the ground.

That, my friends, certainly qualifies as “flowers that grow taller than me.” Truth is, I’m also impressed by the tiniest flowers. Most anything of beauty is something worth appreciation and admiration. Those things of beauty that come to us without cost and that offer aesthetic enrichment with minimal effort might even merit a bit more appreciation.

They are a reminder that the One Who Has Made Us has made a great many things of beauty. Their presence offers a respite. And respite that also attracts hummingbirds is a special sort of refreshing. Kind of a “beauty that draws beauty” sort of thing.

Like people who reflect the beauty of Christ in how they live and treat others.

H. Arnett
8/19/20