By Xiaoxiang
Nature wakes in spring. The grasses, quietly, poke their heads up through the earth; the trees put forth tender leaves, swaying in the wind with much grace; various flowers unfold their splendors, vying for attention. What a breathtaking scenery it is! Perhaps, your heart is captivated by those flowers, or even more attracted by a beautiful view somewhere, unwilling to turn away from it. However, I wonder whether you have noticed some plants growing in the corners. Though unremarkable, they possess marvelous effects and help us heal the injuries or cure illnesses.
I remember when I was a kid, that one time I was playing with my two brothers under an apricot tree. When we were running and frolicking, we hit a hornet’s nest. The hornets got irritated and poured out to chase after us. My youngest brother ran slowly that he was stung and got several bumps on the head, hurting so bad that he kept screaming and crying. In desperation, I thought of a folk treatment method my grandpa taught us. So I pulled up the Portulaca oleracea on the roadside, shook off the earth from it and took some that were clean to mash them with a stone, and then I hurried to apply them to the bumps on my brother’s head. With its particular effect of eliminating toxicity, the swellings on his head were soon reduced. My brother stopped crying. After we played for a while again, he washed off the Portulaca oleracea and we found the bumps on his head became only tiny red spots.
There are still many little plants with miraculous effects like that, such as Popoding, which is also called dandelion. It has the effects of clearing heat-toxin, relieving pain and removing stasis. If we suffer from excessive internal heat and have furuncles or pustules on our bodies, as long as we apply some dandelion to the skin, and also eat some at the same time, the effects will be produced just in a few days. There is also another plant, Edangshi, that is Ebushi, or it is called Herba Centipeda. Growing along roads and in fields, they look inconspicuous and are available everywhere. But they have many effects of treatment, such as healing migraine, rhinitis, nasal polyps, pertussis and so on. There are many little plants like this, and they have their own different medical value for curing many varieties of illnesses. In addition, a great deal of little plants unknown to us are still serving us silently.
When we take for granted all the abundance heaven bestows upon us, yet none of us has sought out where these little flowers and plants come from and that why they have such miraculous effects.
After I believed in God, I read God’s words, which say, “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning. In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary. Doesn’t it show that when God created the heavens and earth and all things, His considerations were better thought out than those of mankind? When you see all that God has done, are you able to feel God’s practical side? God worked in secret. When man had not yet come into this world, before coming into touch with this mankind, God had already created all of this. Everything He did was for the sake of mankind, for the sake of their survival, and for the consideration of mankind’s existence, so that mankind can live in this rich and plentiful material world God prepared for them, and so that they can live happily, not having to worry about food or clothes, and not lacking in anything. Mankind continues to reproduce and survive in such an environment.”
Only through God’s words did I realize that these various herbs of service to us humans are all created by God, and that such miraculous effects of them are given by God, rather than created by nature. Pharmacies sell all kinds of medicines, some of which are capsules, and some are pills, but parts of the ingredients within them are exactly extracted from various herbs, such as, Danshen, balloonflower, loquat leaf, angelica, Hogfennel root, pokeberry root, Radix Puerariae, Tufuling, figwort root, and so on. They differ from each other in effects: Some can be used to subdue inflammation; some help relieve a cough; some are very effective in curing the injuries, in relieving muscles and activating collaterals; and some can heal internal bruises and trauma, and so on. Any of such effects, however, is inseparable from all kinds of plants God has created.
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and earth and all things, He prepared everything for us mankind. In order that we can continue to exist peacefully, healthily and happily, God makes meticulous plans in all aspects. Not only has He provided us with daily sustenance, but He has prepared various plants that are necessary for curing our illnesses. God has paid a high price for us. Thinking back on the little medicinal plants that I know or I have used, I really see that within these small flowers and grass is hidden God’s care and cherishing of mankind, and that they also bear witness to God’s wonderful deeds of His creation of all things. Only when we come before the Creator and read His words, can we discover more of God’s marvelous deeds and experience His true love of mankind.
