Bleeding Heart

Christine Johnson • Apr 10, 2020

On graceful, arching stems, the pink blossoms shake in the stiff breeze and draw my attention. The perennial has sprung inconspicuously from dormancy into full bloom while the church building has moved from being a bustling place to dormancy. Had the Sacristans* not carried the old, rugged cross outdoors to set it up as a sorrowful marker of Good Friday, I may never have noticed the waving shrub. But there it is, growing and thriving. Lifeless to vibrant. A bleeding heart plant.

Dangling beneath thin branches, each delicate flower bears the shape of a heart, and each exquisite heart appears to drip one precious drop of blood.  

This is my blood…shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin…

One day last week, my husband Darrell and I spent a meaningful hour at the Miller-Keystone Blood Center to donate a couple of precious pints. To roll up a sleeve and allow a phlebotomist to wind a tourniquet around my arm before puncturing my skin always strikes me as a peculiar act of faith. But once the anxiety subsides and the vital fluid starts flowing through coiled tubing, it becomes a sacred moment. I can’t watch, I’ll admit, or I’ll faint. But I can feel the flow, and I can contemplate in the smallest of ways what it may have meant for Jesus to allow himself to be emptied out as the ultimate act of selflessness.

This is my blood…shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin…

To call someone a “bleeding heart” is a slam. It’s used disparagingly to accuse someone of being extravagantly sympathetic (Miriam-Webster) or too concerned about people in need (Cambridge), or overdramatic in how much they care for and worry about other people (writingexplained.org).

This is my blood…shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin…

Was Jesus too compassionate? Was Jesus too caring? Was Jesus too loving? Was Jesus too much? From the top of the church’s front steps I look out at that black-draped cross and that spectacle of a landscape plant and ponder Jesus—the original bleeding heart.

In Solemn Beauty,

Pastor Chris

*Thank you to our volunteers who prepared today’s display: Ron and Nancy Penrose with assistance from Nahum Pradhan.

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