Himalayan Honeysuckle

I passed a Himalayan Honeysuckle growing by a railway line in Grange over Sands last autumn, and also in the village of Harlaxton in the summer. I was struck by its beauty. Scarlet bracts produce white, bell-shaped flowers which hang down and dance in the breeze. My photographs are particularly poor on account of that motion. Had I returned to that town and village a few weeks later, I might have witnessed the emergence of berries. Sources claim they taste like treacle or caramel, which are two flavours I particularly love, though one writer warns of the ‘loosening effects’ they have on the human bowel. Perhaps it was as well I never had chance to get my day’s caramel fix from their juice.

I guess someone, at some point in history, decided to try one of those berries for the first time. Would it kill them? Would they be loosened? Or would they derive pleasure and goodness? Evidently the latter, although the lack of commercial production suggests they can’t be as good as I imagine. Psalm 44:8 says:

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

We take a risk when we trust. We take a risk when we taste. Yet they who trust in God are never shamed nor exposed. Trust Him- for your salvation, for your provision, for your peace and serenity.