Datura Inoxia

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,

you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs

which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside

are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.

Matthew 23:27

Datura are leafy annuals (or short-lived perennials) that can grow up to seven feet tall.  The erect, trumpet shaped flowers vary in color from white to yellow, pink and pale purple.  The spiny seed capsule splits open when ripe, releasing numerous seeds.  Most parts of the plant contain toxic hallucinogens, and it has a long history of use for causing delirium and death.  Datura belong to the classic “witches weeds” [an essential ingredient for witches’ brews], along with deadly nightshade, herbane and mandrake.

I currently have this plant growing all along the walkway to my house, and to say they are spectacular is a complete understatement.  The flowers rise through upright pods, coming to full bloom at dusk, but dying by early afternoon the following day.  A single plant will produce 10-12 blooms at the same time.  They are absolutely gorgeous, but completely deadly.

Jesus found the Pharisees to be very similar to my lethal flowers.  In their flowing robes and mitered headdress, they were beautiful on the exterior.  They appeared to be perfect human beings who kept every law ever written.  But inside, they were grasping, devious, power hungry, vain, amoral men.  Society rewards the exterior beauty, brains and brawn of their chosen celebrities.  God cares only for the condition of the heart.

I have met stunningly beautiful people who were vain, rude and self-absorbed.  Some of my closest friends will never grace the runways of this world’s fashion palaces, but their kindness, compassion, love and joy pour forth to me from their beautiful hearts.  Lord, help me today to have true, inner beauty – pure and clean through Your grace. Amen.