Common Corncockle

This pretty flower is common corncockle. Its distribution once justified its name, for it was a regular sight in the wheatfields. Yet it was thought to be extinct in the United Kingdom until a National Trust employee came across a plant near Souter Lighthouse at Tyneside, in 2014. Corncockle fell victim to mechanised farming, yet a few seeds managed to survive, but only just. This rare and pretty little plant was growing in our chapel’s graveyard this summer. Thankfully, there are still places where it may be found. Likewise, I pray our chapel will remain a place where the Bible is still taught and believed, and a people gather to worship in spirit and in truth. In Great Britain, this is an increasingly rare phenomenon, but God will preserve us, much as He preserved that pretty flower in our own backyard.