Ice Flowers

    There are some very unique creations in nature that are only seen by a few fortunate people. I was recently privileged to see one of these creations. I took a walk in the woods during our first freeze of this winter. I saw what looked like Kleenex tissues spread across the ground. Upon close observation I realized that it was not tissues but “ice flowers” or as some call them “frost flowers”. I quickly returned to my house to get my camera to capture the unique moment.

These unique creations can only be observed once a year at the first freeze, and they disappear as soon at the temperature rises above freezing. Some years they do not appear at all. These flowers are very delicate and a breath of hot air is all it takes to make them to disappear.












     “Ice flowers” are created by a rare and difficult to observe phenomena. At the first freeze, sap still exists in the stems of certain plants, such as the common “rag week” in central Texas. As the sap starts to freeze it expands and creates long cracks along the plant’s stem. The sap is then extruded out of these cracks, and immediately freezes on contact with the cold air. As the sap continues to extrude out the crack, it forms ribbons or petals that are similar to flowers.

    Observing the fragile “ice flowers”, that only last for a couple of hours, reminds me of the writings of James, who compares our life to a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (James 4:14). Time can seem to pass by slowly, especially when we are sick are going through rough times. We sometimes feel that we have lived for an extremely long time on earth, but compared to an eternity in heaven, our time spent on earth will be very short. Live your life on earth for God and you will enjoy a long eternity in heaven!