"What Time is It , Chicory ?"

We are obsessed with time ..... our days are planned around the clock. What question is asked more often in a day than, "What time is it ?"
My friend, Tammie, who lives in Mississippi , did a recent post on the health benefits of chicory. She was intrigued that the chicory flowers grow wild beside the road where I live. Because of her interest, I got interested in the plant and a little 'rabbit trail' research revealed to me a fascinating characteristic of certain flowers including the chicory bloom.
What do chicory flowers have to do with time ? Did you know that man as early as the Greek and Roman civilizations used flower beds as working clocks ?
Carolus Linnaeus, a famous 18th-Century Swedish botanist, became fascinated by the regularity with which certain flowers opened and closed each day and described his observations in his book. He recorded the individual times of each flower and arranged them into a 'floral clock' by which he could tell the time within half an hour !
Linnaeus described three groups of flowers that open and close each day.
1. Meteorici - flowers which change their opening and closing times according to the weather conditions.
2. Tropici - flowers which change their times for opening and closing according to the hours of daylight in the day.
3. Aequinoctales - flowers which have a fixed internal clock that determine their times for opening and closing unaffected by the weather or light conditions.
Only the Aequinoctales can be used for floral clocks, the others are too undependable.
I love how God has built a 'lesson' into everything He created. I read about the Meteorici and Tropici group of flowers and I was immediately reminded of the verse in
Eph 4:14 that says .. "That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting"
A strong verse to attach to a pretty flower, but isn't deception often 'pretty' at first glance? Children are so easily distracted by anything that is bright and colorful and they reach out to touch. As I look around me today I am amazed at how many 'doctrines' there are - enticing beliefs that tickle people's fancy and draw them away from that which is unerringly solid. People are by default like the Meteorici and Tropici flower group... they open and close their minds according to the 'weather' .... according to the 'winds' of current teaching or fads that are around them.
I love the Aequinoctales flower group. They are unaffected by what is going on around them. Their 'clock' is fixed on what is unchangeable. They are like followers of Jesus who have fixed their 'hearts' on the unchanging truth of His Words and they know His voice and listen to no other.
(Joh 10:27) "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. "
Only the "Aequinoctales" can be trusted to be true to God's Word . They are the only ones who will be faithful - the ones that give clear direction to those who ask "what 'time' is it?"
I smiled when I learned that the Chicory flower is the 'early riser'. It opens its face to God when the other flowers are still asleep ! I love David's words which were perhaps inspired by him looking into the open face of a Chicory flower, which is native to Israel.
" My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up." (Psa.5:3)