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經文：「我樣樣都有，並且有餘。」（腓4:18） 在我的某本園藝書中，有篇談到「生在黑暗裡的花」。內容是說有一種小花，是不需要日光照射的。我先生也曾說，這種小花不但不怕黑暗，並且在黑暗中反而長得更快。 靈界也有這類的小花；當物質環境最黑暗的時候，它們就出現，並且生長在黑暗中。 正如使徒保羅寫腓立比書的時候，正是在羅馬作俘虜。那時，他一生的志業似乎走到盡頭。然而正是在這受困的黑暗中，花朵開得特別可愛。也許保羅也曾看見過這些花朵，但是卻從沒有像當下如此濃郁美麗的。神的話替他揭開一個他過去從沒有見過的寶藏。 在這個寶藏當中有幾樣奇特的事物，那些是：主的恩典與愛、主的喜樂與平安；這些似乎都需要黑暗來開發它們的神秘和榮耀一般。經歷了黑暗以後，保羅開始發現那些過去沒有發覺的屬靈產業的廣大與豐富了。--喬懷德（Dr. Jowett） 就算是最美麗的花朵，在日光下都有它的黑影。光越大，影越深。 新譯｜荒漠甘泉讀書會
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Scripture: "I have all, and abound" (Phil. 4:18). In one of my garden books there is a chapter with a very interesting heading, "Flowers that Grow in the Gloom." It deals with those patches in a garden which never catch the sunlight. And my guide tells me the sort of flowers which are not afraid of these dingy corners--may rather like them and flourish in them. And there are similar things in the world of the spirit. They come out when material circumstances become stern and severe. They grow in the gloom. How can we otherwise explain some of the experiences of the Apostle Paul? Here he is in captivity at Rome. The supreme mission of his life appears to be broken. But it is just in this besetting dinginess that flowers begin to show their faces in bright and fascinating glory. He may have seen them before, growing in the open road, but never as they now appeared in incomparable strength and beauty. Words of promise opened out their treasures as he had never seen them before. Among those treasures were such wonderful things as the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy and peace of Christ; and it seemed as though they needed an "encircling gloom" to draw out their secret and their inner glory. At any rate the realm of gloom became the home of revelation, and Paul began to realize as never before the range and wealth of his spiritual inheritance. Who has not known men and women who, when they arrive at seasons of gloom and solitude, put on strength and hopefulness like a robe? You may imprison such folk where you please; but you shut up their treasure with them. You cannot shut it out. You may make their material lot a desert, but "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."--Dr. Jowett "Every flower, even the fairest, has its shadow beneath it as it swings in the sunlight." Where there is much light there is much shade. ｜ Mrs. Charles Cowman
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