Day Eleven - Think of a world without any flowers

I wonder whether one of the ways to appreciate what is around us, is to imagine it not being there? Doreen Newport, a music teacher and wife of a Congregational (later URC) minister, wrote the well-known hymn “Think of a world without any flowers”. This hymn is published in many places, with various verses, usually copyrighted by Stainer & Bell 1969.

The first three verses (as sung in the link above) are about creation as recorded in Genesis: flowers, trees, sunshine, breeze, animals, fishes, birds, people and families.

However, I remember finding extra verses for this hymn to sing at Hope Congregational Church in Oldham. For me “creation” is not just what God did in the beginning but also how we, as his creatures, are creative. The only place I could find these extra verses was here.

Its third verse mixes what we humans create with God’s original creation: our painting with his rainbow and colours. The following stanza seems to all about us – poetry, books and songs but surely God gave us the ability to speak and sing?

Most Christians would agree that these all come under the heading of ‘creation’. Then come these words: “Think of a world without any science”; surely science is about discovering what is there rather than creating from scratch? Michelangelo apparently said: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it” and “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”. These imply that what we think of as our human creativity pre-exists and we are just revealing what God has already done.

The penultimate verse brings theology into what many consider to be a children’s school assembly song:

“Think of a world without any worship,

Think of a God without his only Son,

Think of a cross without a resurrection,

Only a grave and not a victory won:

We thank you, Lord, for showing us our Saviour…”.

The last verse reminds us that God is always with us: “Thanks be to him for sharing all we do”, so perhaps our creativity is indeed always rooted in God’s own. The penultimate line reads: “We thank you, Lord, for life in all its richness”, which reminds me of John 10:10 - “I have come in order that you might have life - life in all its fullness”.

Look at all the things Doreen Newport suggests we should be thankful for – which enrich our lives. For me, to whom nature in the raw says very little, these other phenomena are where I see the beauty of creation: listening to Jake Thackeray singing “Sister Josephine”; using a Troika lamp or a Moorcroft pin tray; even eating my morning cereal from a Portmeirion bowl.

I might be able to think of a world without cut flowers in my house, or opera, or ballet but then part of creation is us – and we were all created unique. Thanks be to God!

Elaine Kinchin