Widow’s Flower

Knautia, related to the scabeous, is sometimes called Widow’s Flower. Few of us would naturally associate so pretty a boom with that state of having lost one’s marriage partner to death. Yet the gospel declares that the most pitiable and forlorn of folk may reason to rejoice. Says Deuteronomy 16:

13 Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 14 Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. 15 For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. (Emphasis mine)

Slaves, foreigners, orphans and widows typically have little to make them happy. Yet this great Jewish feast commemorated on Tishri 15 of the Hebrew calendar (the seventh month) began just five days after the Day of Atonement. As well as celebrating the harvest (a picture of God’s abundance), it remembered God's provision during Israel's forty years in the wilderness living in tents. It also anticipates the time when the great God would tabernacle among men in a human body, that they might dwell permanently with Him thereafter. This wonderful prospect must bring a smile even to the careworn widow’s face, who now has a future and a hope.

“Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.” Isaiah 54:4