…and for no visible reason.

The fair new petals must fall, and for no visible reason. No one seems enriched by the stripping.

And the first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender–not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped it’s true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for “no polluted thing” can be offered. 

the life lost on the Cross was not a sinful one–the treasure poured there was God-given, God-blessed treasure, lawful and right to be kept: only that there was the life of the world at stake.

–Lilias Trotter’s (Parables of the Cross)