Contradictions

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions –
so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance,
so small in size yet big in beauty,
so short in life yet long on effect.

~ Adabella Radici

After reading the above, I thought about the contradictions often associated with struggling to live a spiritual life. Jesus Christ said we had to lose our life to find it, and to be rich we had to be poor. How much more contradictory can you get!

Jesus’ commands make sense though when put into a spiritual context. He meant we had to lose our material sense of life to gain the spiritual, and we needed to be poor in worldly desire to be rich in spiritual growth.

Like the flower that may be “small in size yet big in beauty,” we too, may feel small in size compared to others who are famous and popular, rich and successful, but it’s not our fame and popularity that matter in the long run. It’s the love we live and express. It’s our spirituality manifest that makes us “big in beauty.” And we all have equal access to that privilege.