My Lilies

This past winter while shopping at our local Target store I came across this sale item. It was a nice green pot complete with soil and 3 lily bulbs. I have always enjoyed lilies and I knew that they are my daughter's favorite flowers. So I said to myself - why not. The price was good and even if the lilies didn't pan out - I would have a nice pot.

So I brought them home and for a while the pot just sat in the bag waiting patiently for me to get busy and plant the bulbs. Finally, one night I decided it was time to put the dirt in the pot and get those bulbs planted. Following the directions I dutifully did all that was required to get them on their way. Finished with the planting, I placed the pot in our kitchen bay window and began the process of waiting.

Literally weeks went by before even the faintest hint of two of the bulbs came up. Curious, I looked to see what had happened to the third one. So I dug it up. Here I had planted it upside down. The lily was trying to push its way up when it was actually pushing its way nowhere but to the bottom. I flipped the bulb right side up and put its very weak stem up toward the light and wondered if it would ever bear a flower.

Each day the stems of the two big plants grew higher and taller and they began to get tiny little pods on them that I hoped would become beautiful lilies. I tenderly cared for them but some of the pods dropped off and I began to think that maybe all I would get was a lot of foliage and no flowers. The third little plant valiantly kept growing - but never was as big as the other two. Yet - I saw a pod develop that actually looked healthier than the ones of the other two.

About a week ago the first lily bloomed. Glorious. Its smell permeates the kitchen. Then two more. And the littlest lily - the one that was growing the wrong direction is soon ready to burst forth with a grand blossom!

Isn't it amazing how God uses nature to teach us lessons? Even as I write this I think about how I am like that little lily. I tried to grow - and I gave it my best shot - but I was growing the wrong direction. Heading down wrong paths. Intentions were good - but the progress went awry somehow. But, the master Gardener found me. Saw me in that pot and righted me. Oh I may not be caught up to some of the other plants in the garden but I am pointing toward the true Light. My buds are maturing and growing fatter and richer with each day of Sonlight and food from the Bread of Life and water from the well that will never run dry. In time, with the Master's care, I will blossom. I will have a lovely aroma to share with those that come around me. Not an aroma of my own making, but one of the fragrances that come from the garden of God.