You can’t ask more of a pear tree. Firstly there’s the crystal icing of its blossom. Is there a more striking, whiter flower? Even on dull days like today, a blooming pear tree glistens like a constellation of gently scented stars. A touch of design genius sees that each blossom has tiny brown traceries tipped with black. All this bright white of course in time becomes one of our most delicious foods. The pear fruit, those speckled bulbs of health-packed flavour, can be eaten straight from the bough, stewed with stupendous results or made into drinks: juice, perry or a kind of cider, each scrumptious.We’re not the only ones being fed. All the pollinators enjoy the spring feast too, and in the long months between flower and fruiting, pear orchards provide a great habitat
01 May 2014, The Tablet
Glimpses of Eden
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User Comments (1)
There is an old quip about quantum mechanics to the effect that anyone who claims to understand it obviously doesn’t. It seems so counter-intuitive, not least because our senses have never had to deal with its consequences. Nevertheless, the conscientious labours of science get us ever closer.
When it comes to God and the nature and purpose of creation, we are – or should be – on a very similar journey. The "Hard Problems" challenge our model of reality, requiring us to discern a better model, which should, in turn, refine how we try to live.