Wasps and cormels.

Here is my thinking about how Jesus loved the Pharisees (love your enemies…)

So, it looks like Jesus agrees with the Pharisees by clarifying His relationship with the law.

‘Don’t think that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I come not to destroy but fulfil.’

So what could they say to that?

Jesus then seems to involve them. He is a guest on Sabbath at a Pharisee’s house. There is a man uncomfortably swollen. Jesus asks this question:

‘ Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’

No answer.

Jesus heals the man.

Then Jesus challenges them.

‘ Won’t you rescue an animal on the Sabbath?’

No answer! But this does not make them friendly instead they become more jealous and angry.

Jesus seemed to work with the opposition as a group and as individuals.

The dialogue with Nichodemus went well.  There was understanding and an acceptance of who Jesus was, with Nicodemus supporting Jesus from his place in the hierarchy of the Pharisees.

So how do I love my enemies? Go and be kind to the people who make the opposition angry, thereby making another group angry?

I think I will go and look at a wasp’s nest. Last year when taking out the 13-year-old pond lily I noticed no wasps or bees on the lavender, this year there is a wasp nest held in the roots of the tree just under the hammock. The bees while not in large numbers are attracted by the sunflowers and have done reasonably well.

Here is a video of the wasps coming in and going out of their ground nest.

Another special in the garden is a bucket with cormels (they are very, very small corms) each year they have put up thin spear-shaped leaves. This year they have been larger and we have had the first gladiolus bloom from one of them.

Five years ago I had this conversation with my late father-in-law Brian in his garden.

Sandy: ‘I’m collecting lots of these very small corms to see them grow.’

I put my hand out with a few corms sitting on my palm.

Brian: ‘How long will they take to flower again?’

Sandy: ‘ Five years, maybe!’

Brian: ‘ I won’t see them, then.’

Silence.

I saw one this week.

Here are some quotes about wasps:

‘Are we not wasps who spend all day in a fruitless attempt to traverse a window pane – while the other half of the window is open?’

Wei Wu Wei

‘ If there is a rumour in the air about you, you’d better treat it as you would a wasp: either ignore it or kill it with the first blow. Anything else will just stir it up.’

James Alexander Thom

And by someone I don’t know

‘ I’ve got a real headache, must have been stung by a thought.’

Take care,

Sandy 🙂