Thursday, April 14, 2011

A Particularly Luscious Lily

In the months after our son was born, I would split my time between napping, quietly nursing, and bundling him in the carriage for long walks in the autumn wind. I came to refer to these times as prayer walks, because all the whole time, I could hear God whispering into my ear. A friend had given me a "study Bible" with footnotes, so I could finally begin to understand the puzzling pieces of scripture that had halted all my prior attempts to seek Him. In Twelve-Step meetings, I was hearing about letting go, about how God can’t put anything into hands that are clenched shut. Things were becoming a little less abstract, but they remained elusive – or so I thought.

Then there came a particularly memorable walk pushing the baby in his carriage toward the afternoon sun. I had spent almost all of the two miles muttering at God, complaining that He makes it so complicated for us to see Him and believe that He is real. Suddenly, I stopped and stared. A ray of sunlight had literally beamed itself onto something, and it drew my eye toward it. Before me, in the sunbeam, was a lily whose color was a deep persimmon red. Its color had a luscious, iridescent sheen that made me want to eat it.

God had shone a ray of light directly onto that luscious lily to show me He wasn’t complicated at all. Not a bit. Light off/Light on. Illumination. "My God!” I said out loud. "I get it!"

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful post about God's love and clarity and a very precious time in any mother's life. Brings back happy memories in my own life - so glad you kept notes!

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  2. Yay, Hilary -- thanks for the comment! Sometimes I feel that I might sound crazy to people at the receiving end, so it is very encouraging to get your post this morning. I know you know what I'm talking about, and doesn't it seem like just ten minutes ago that we were pushing our sons around in prams? And now they are these handsome young men! Sigh...

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  3. A lusciously lit Lily leaving us longing for the Lord. Lovely!!!

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  4. Love this picture! Hoping I look a little like this in twenty years time. :)

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