African Violet Theology

Naming the Darkness. I wrote about that recently. (Click here.) I believe it’s an extremely important and valuable part of our spiritual and emotional growth process. The person who doesn’t KNOW herself and the ways she struggles on the journey toward freedom in Christ can flail with great discouragement in the face of forces she doesn’t understand. I know this firsthand! And yet, it’s not enough.

To illustrate this, I want to tell you a story. Everyone loves a good story, right?

Milton Erickson, a now deceased psychiatrist, once went to the home of a friend in Milwaukee. His friend had an aunt there who was very old and very wealthy. She lived in a huge Victorian home with incredible antiques, but his friend was concerned because she was depressed. And so Dr. Erickson went to the home at his friend's request to visit this aunt.

The aunt took him on a tour of her entire home. All the blinds were closed. It was dark, gloomy, and depressing. The last place she took him to was bright and cheery room full of gorgeous African violet plants. It was in stark contrast to the rest of the house. Standing in the beautiful room Dr. Erickson felt compelled to speak, "I can see what your problem is," he began.

"What do you mean?" said the old woman confused.

Looking deep into her eyes he simply stated, "You are not really a very good Christian."

Completely insulted, the depressed woman finally managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

"Here you have this great gift for growing African violets," Dr. Erickson gently explained, "And you keep it all to yourself. If I were you, I would get your church bulletin, and whenever someone had a birthday, or a death, or a wedding, or an anniversary, or whatever, I would take them one of your beautiful African violet plants as a gift."

After that advice, Dr. Erickson left and never spoke to the old woman again. As Dr. Erickson told this story to a group of students, he pulled out an old yellow Milwaukee newspaper article. The headline read: "African Violet Queen of Milwaukee Dies... Mourned by Thousands." As usual, a curious student raised his hand and asked, "Why did you have her give out plants instead of treating her depression?" After a short pause, the wise teacher explained, "I decided that it would be easier to grow the African violet part of her life than to weed out the depression."

Dr. Erickson’s simple story reflects an often neglected part of our Christian Theology: God’s good and glorious CREATION came before the ravages of the FALL. We can err in the direction of ignoring the harmful distortions of sin in our hearts and our world. But we can also err in the direction of failing to call out what is God’s created glory within and around us. We must hold onto both.

Perhaps the sin struggle in your heart is overwhelming. You are naming the darkness, and it’s flat out depressing. But there are African violets in your heart! I know this, without knowing you, because He put them in every human. Perhaps you see this in a love for the arts, or nature; maybe it’s an inclination towards justice for the oppressed; maybe it’s a satisfaction you feel with serving a practical need; or a love for learning about science, growing a garden, creating quality clothing or fixing broken things. These are reflections of His goodness, beauty, order and creativity which He has placed uniquely in YOU! So go ahead and grow the African violets. Not only is it refreshing to your heart, but it’s also worshipful to the One who made you to reflect His Light in a unique way.