By Chen Xiaoling, United States
In my hometown, people grow many cockscombs. Every time when I saw the full-blown cockscombs beside the road, I always enjoyed stopping my feet to appreciate their beauty. The cockscombs in bloom don’t give off heady scents; however, by contrast with the luxuriant green leaves their pink stems and colorful flowers look particularly enthusiastic and passionate. Clusters of flowers stand erect, looking as beautiful as the combs of the crowing cocks. There are various kinds of cockscombs with different colors such as purplish red, pale yellow, golden yellow, faint pink, flaming red, reddish brown, salmon pink, and so on. They are too colorful and amazing.
Cockscombs not only have high value of appreciation, but also are a kind of wonderful herbal medicine.
When I was a child, once I suddenly got a bloody nose, and then I ran before my mom in fear and trepidation. My mom said nervously: “Alas, you’ve got a bloody nose. What’s the problem?” As she said, she let me pinch my nose and insert a small ball of soft paper into my nostrils. And a few minutes later, my nose stopped bleeding. But in several days, I got a bloody nose again. My mom was very worried about my condition and felt it was necessary to find a curative method. So she inquired about the methods of curing nosebleed everywhere. Finally she got a folk prescription: Stewing the mixture of cockscombs with lean pork and then drinking the soup and eating the lean pork, in which way nosebleed can be cured. After my mom got this good news, she couldn’t wait to cook for me. That figures. After I drank the soup and ate the lean pork several times, I really no longer got bloody nose. All my family were very happy. Afterward, through inquiring we came to know that cockscombs not only can stanch bleeding and cool blood but can also cure gynecopathies, hematemesis, hemoptysis, bloody stranguria, and so on. It is indeed too wonderful.
Cockscombs
Not merely do cockscombs have the effect of medicine, but many other insignificant flowers and herbs all have wonderful effects.
When I was in my junior year of high school, I had serious anaemia. The deeply dimpled grain appeared on my fingernails; my head also felt a dull pain often and, taking one step, I would feel as if my head were stroked by a hammer; and, even worse, my memory declined quickly. Thus I worried that my academic record would be affected. During that period of time, I forced myself to study and felt weary in body and mind, not knowing how long I could hold on. Later on, my uncle, a senior doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, made up a prescription with the use of several kinds of Chinese herbal medicines and decocted them together over a low flame till they gave off the smell. I drank the medicine for several days in a row and beyond expectation, the symptoms of anaemia gradually disappeared. And I no longer had anaemia after that.
In a blink, I went to university. Due to the heavy study, I needed to read books often and sometimes I reviewed my lessons in the dim light. Little by little, I was shortsighted and my eyes were quite uncomfortable. When I told this thing to my mom, she asked me to go to the courtyard to pick some young leaves of Semen Cassiae and then cook them to eat. After I ate several times, unknowingly my eyesight became much better. Apart from improving eyesight, Semen Cassiae seeds can ease the bowels, remove liver-fire, and lower blood pressure, and even can tranquillize liver yang. My family also use Semen Cassiae seeds as fillings to make pillows. Laying our heads on them in summer, we can feel pleasantly cool and exhilarated, and can have a sound sleep.
During the process of my growing up, different herbal medicines brought too many benefits to my body and mind. If I got some illnesses at ordinary times, such as stomachache, sore feet, physical injury, and even troubles of the internal organs, I would not readily go to hospital but first consult the seniors and my uncle. They could skillfully tell me to find and decoct related herbal medicines to drink. I often pondered in my heart: How can these herbal medicines be so useful? Who bestowed the functions upon them?
Not until I believed in God did I know this mystery. One day, I saw a passage of God’s word says, “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.”
After seeing God’s word, I felt so touched and saw that God loves us mankind so much. In order to let us mankind live better, God carefully prepared all kinds of plants to supply and nourish us. God knows that we will have various illnesses, so in order to reduce our suffering, He created some herbal medicines to specially resolve our illnesses. These herbal medicines have different kinds of effects, such as promoting blood circulation and relieving blood stasis, inducing diuresis and removing edema, relieving pain, stanching bleeding, promoting digestion, providing anesthesia, and so on. They were discovered by the ancients under God’s guidance, and then were handed down for generations. This makes me truly feel that God is like a kindly mother, who has prepared the necessaries of life before the baby is given birth, such as nursing bottle, clothes and shoes, cradle, and other things used in eating, dressing, and sheltering. God’s considerations for us are very thoughtful. He does things in secret and supplies us with all the necessaries in obscurity. He prepares various kinds of herbal medicines and food so that we can grow healthily, but He has never boasted what a great thing He has done for us. God is too great! His care and cherishing of us are meticulous.
Time flies like a shuttle and keeps rolling on. These herbal medicines supply and nourish one generation after another. Most of them look insignificant, but in our lives they can show the important value of their existence. Pondering carefully, we can find all things created by God have their own value and meaning of existence. God’s deeds are too wondrous!
