Santa Barbara Ceanothus

This Santa Barbara ceanothus I saw growing in the grounds of London’s St Andrew’s by the Wardrobe. That area has been urbanised for two millennia, so a beautiful flower such as this is all the more welcome. If Barbara was real, she was a third-century Christian woman, tortured for her faith in Christ and possibly even killed for it by her own father.

Just as her flower is a welcome relief from the stone and concrete, so the Christian’s suffering is a radiant contrast with the selfish, conceited and hedonistic ways of this world.