China Aster

This China Aster I found growing in North Yorkshire. As its names implies, it originates in China, though it has been growing in Europe since at the least the 1720s. It is pretty to behold and a pleasure to find growing. I have grown up in a world of ubiquitous Chinese imports, few of which may be deemed as exotic as this flower.

I wondered about references to China in scripture. Courtesy of distance and Chinese Emperors’ policies of non-contact with the outside world, there is little reference to one of the world’s most important peoples in the world’s most important book. Yet some cite Isaiah 49:12:

Behold, these shall come from far: and lo, these from the North and from the West, and these from the land of Sinim

-Sinae being the Latin name for the Qin (Ch’in) nation, though there exists several alternative explanations. Furthermore, Revelation 16:12 states:

And the sixth Angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof dried up, that the way of the Kings of the East should be prepared.

An even more opaque prophecy, but which I suspect refers to a massive Chinese army likely to be mobilised for the benefit of events in the future Middle East. This is hard to prove of course, but neither is it easy to dismiss.

In John 3:16, China, along with all other nations, is certainly included in the word cosmos, which translates 'world':

For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That is a message that every Chinese man and woman needs to hear, and it is far more beauitful than the flowers pictured, above. 

(All references from the Geneva Bible)