A Cut Flower Society

As March dawns I admit that I am itching to get back out into the garden. Flowers are such a delightful pleasure of God’s creation, a true gift of colour and joy. During the winter we can enjoy cut flowers, however, their beauty is temporary and fleeting. They only last so long. By contrast real flowers continue long in bloom and perennials return every year afresh to bless us once more.
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There are many in our contemporary Canadian culture (itself being refashioned as we speak) who believe that our Christian past is a total blight and embarrassment to our national identity. It is a something to be reinvented and forgot rather than cherished and preserved. Recent studies show an increasing majority of Canadians see religion as a negative force, with only some 34% seeing Christianity as a positive element of society. There are some who even champion the idea that we must finally cut ourselves off from our Christian past to secure the bright dawn of a progressive future.

C.S. Lewis suggested that when one had gone down the wrong path the most progressive thing to do was to reverse and then progress down the true path (c.f. Jer 6:16–17). As Canada has become, and continues to become, more post-Christian, some non-Christian leaders have urged restraint in jettisoning our heritage because they recognize the immense value it has and that our country couldn’t existentially be what it is without it.

This is wise wisdom because Christianity gave us the very essence of what has made Canada such a glorious land. As we’ve slipped and then rushed away from this heritage we risk, well, everything. We are, you might say, living on borrowed time. To put it another way, the present generation is very much living off the merits of past generations. We still have some semblance of life but we are losing our bloom as we die a slow death. We are a cut flower society. We are cut off from the very roots that gave us life.

Consider what Christianity gave us and what it might look like without these values:

• An Other focus- Focus on God and others vs. self
• Truth and Science- Belief in an objective truth that has meaning
• Freedom- basic rights come from God (not self) and were often developed by Christians in the face of persecution.
• Law and Order- Because there is truth there is also right and wrong, and hence harm and good in society, reward and punishment.
• Productivity & Prosperity- The Christian work ethic, that we are responsible beings who ought to work for the glory of God and the good of others.
• Compassion- That the genuinely weak should be protected.
• Weekends- That we need to rest one day in 7, centring on the Lord’s Day.

Oh how true the Proverb that, “righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov 14:34)

May society repent and see the worth of Christian values and the Lord who stands behind them ready to forgive and renew (Acts 3:19).

May the faithful remnant of Canadian Christians have a preserving and savoury effect as the salt of this land (Mt 5:13).

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