One Week

The Cleveland Zoo in Ohio, United States of America, has an Asian Lantern Festival each summer that I had desired to see for some time.

A few years earlier, my godsister had driven through it during the day. She decided it was not too interesting to view lanterns in the light, so she suggested we go at night and walk through to enjoy the festival fully. Once the tickets went on sale, we invited a couple of other family members and friends and picked a date. Everyone was excited to attend. Of course, we had no way of knowing whether the weather would be good on that day.

No one wanted to walk around in the rain or blazing heat. The day finally arrived, and our group had a grand time. The lanterns were spread out and displayed throughout the zoo, and they were all so beautiful. We must have walked a good six miles that evening! Since it was dark most of the time we were there, not many animals were out for us to see.

The lanterns had our full attention. However, there was one attraction that piqued our curiosity: the corpse flower. I had never heard of it and wondered what it was. We leisurely walked up to the display and read about this flower.

It had bloomed only four times in the past twenty-eight years. We discovered how it got its name. When in bloom, it has a pungent smell. Some say it smells like rotting flesh, hence the name. We took a couple of pictures and then moved on.

A few days later, the news began to run stories that the corpse flower was showing signs it was going to bloom! And it did; it was in full bloom exactly one week after our visit to the Cleveland Zoo! I could not believe we missed this rare event by one week.

It would have been incredible to see (maybe not smell) it in person.

The display we had just walked up to view now had lines where people waited an hour or more to see the blooming flower. There is a one-time-only event soon to take place, and that is the second coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I do not want to miss it, and I am planning now to attend. Just as the flower gave signs it would soon bloom, there are signs that Christ’s return is very near; “therefore keep watch” (Matthew 25:13, NIV).

Angèle Peterson