Periwinkle

Death walks into our hospital corridors uninvited. It sneers the living, who do all they can to save lives and walks away with its prey. Some very calm and peaceful and some with tremendous pain. Some almost in an instance and some day by day. My pen fails to justify the moans of the dying and the shrieks of the beloved watching their own depart.

Who doesn't want a beautiful ending to their story; a dignified death - a death where you would have your loved ones at your bed side. Those final moments that you bestow your loved ones with; by just being beside them in their final strides of their journey on earth.  But when death walks into your house by the name of Covid-19, it humiliates the very concept of a dignified death. A death where the moans of the dying goes unheard by the beloved whose shrieks are silenced by the stigma of the disease. Death walks into our corridors uninvited. It sneers the living and snatches its prey. 

Periwinkle is commonly called as Vinca, graveyard plant, old maid, bright eyes etc.. It is a native to Europe where it was also called the 'flower of death' in their old folk-tales because its vines were woven into ornamental headbands worn by an offender on his way to execution.  They are very pretty perennials who just invade the place. I planted two beautiful colours of periwinkle in the month of July last year. Periwinkle is known to flower for a longer period of time. If you have one, they stay. They stay and flower throughout the year. It is very tolerant to harsh climatic conditions and poor soil. They are less demanding. And here I am this, July 2020 attempting to give death its due hue, while my husband is in the front line fighting CoVID-19. 

Death as terrifying as it sounds, is beautiful too. Like they say, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Death is beautiful if He has charted our plan of life and death (Job 14:5).
Death is beautiful if He has prepared the place (John 14:3).
Death is beautiful if there is a hope of eternal life. (John 5:24).
Death is beautiful if there is a better life after death- a life that is exceedingly beautiful where we dine with our creator; a feast that He had prepared long ago just for the church - His bride. 
'He will wipe away every tear from your eyes and death shall be no more, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for former things have passed away (Rev 21:4)'. 
Death is beautiful if we believe that death cannot snatch us from the loving hands of our creator. 'For death shall not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38, 39)'.
Finally, death is beautiful if we believe that this creator whom we are going to meet and live with forever has himself defeated death. The only ONE to defeat it. 'If we have been united with Him in death like his, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6:5)'.

"When the mortal put on immortality then shall come to pass the saying

Death is swallowed up in victory

O death where is thy sting?

O grave where is thy victory?" 

Next time you see the "Flower of death" or Periwinkle  by the wayside, let it be a sweet reminder of the crown of thorns that replaced this crown of flowers and the certainty that death indeed is beautiful only because of that victory over death on the cross. 

If ever death be beautiful, Soli Deo Gloria.

-Eben Lesley