PHOTO: Mary van Balen One day last week and friend and I were walking through a small woods near my home.
“Maybe we’ll see a Jack-in-the- Pulpit,” he said.
I had seen them only once before. They are an early spring flower, and one needs to be out at the right time to spot them. As we walked we saw plenty of Mayapples, spreading their leaves and covering large patches of ground, like a crowd of umbrellas on a rainy day. We saw cut-leaved toothwort and whorls of spotted leaves that, while beautiful themselves, probably will sprout a flower in weeks to come. Then we saw it: the Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
Pushing up out of brown leaf cover, the mostly green plant stood straight, the leaf-hood, or spathe, curled protectively over the spadix, a slender spike that hides tiny flowers at its base. I remembered a small church in England I had attended while living with a friend outside London. The pulpit was attached to one of the columns, and had a baffle around and above the preacher, directing the sound of his voice out to the congregation. The sermon was bad enough to send me out early in search of some quiet place to pray which I found on the banks of the Thames.
The Jack-in-the-Pulpit was preaching much more effectively, crying out, as does Psalm 148, for all creation to praise the Creator.Such variety of life on this planet. Such glorious creation to see seen in this Spring’s night skies. A trip back to the woods in a week will reveal more flowers and plants, animals scurrying, water flowing.
The small green plant, easy to miss unless one is looking, was calling out with its simple beauty: “Praise the Lord from the earth, sea creatures and all oceans, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy winds that obey God’s word; all mountains and hills, all fruit tress and cedars, beasts, wild and tame, reptiles and birds on the wing; all earth’s kings and peoples, earth’s princes and rulers; young men and maidens, old men together with children. Let them praise the name of the Lord for the Lord alone is exalted. The splendor of God’s name reaches beyond heaven and earth.”
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