A Nursery

 

 

 

 

 

     Some friends of ours were planning to start selling potted plants.  They had many plants started and all in their own pots.  The variety was wonderful with all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors of plant with flowers.  They had made a great beginning for a nursery.  Well, one day they stopped by our house and decided they wanted to share their plants. 

 

 

  

 

 

 

     What a surprise.  There is plenty of room to put plants but it takes time and work to take care of them so first we had to prepare places to plant them. 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

     We had fun trying to figure out where to put which flower to suit its size and needs.  Well they had a very big patch of day lilies that they wanted to take out so they gave us all these lilies and we put them in different places around the yard and they have spread prolifically.

 

 




 "Consider the lilies of the field," he says, "how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" (Matt. 6:28-30.) Now think of that. Take the grass of the particular grass of the field of which he speaks is the lilies,-"consider the lilies, how they grow;" "if God so clothe the grass of the field,"-that is, the lilies,-"shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" 

How is the lily clothed? It has a beautiful garment of white and green and various other colors. Solomon in all his glory, arrayed in his royal apparel, must have been a wonderful sight. The Queen of Sheba came a long ways to see the glory of Solomon, and when she saw it, her heart fainted. "The half was not told me," she said, "and I could not believe what I did heart." Who would not go a long way to see one of the kings of the earth, although he might not be arrayed as gloriously as Solomon was? and in order to see this sight one would trample underfoot a score of lilies without noticing them. If one should place before him a stalk of modest lilies, they would consider them very plain. "See the glory and all the magnificent array of Solomon!" "Yes, but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these lilies, for the royal apparel of Solomon was something that could be put on and taken off; and when he took it off, nobody would know, to look at him, that he was any different from other men." But the clothing of the lily is the life of the lily. It is not something that is put on, but something that comes from within; it is the inner life that the lily draws from God's great storehouse in the air and in the earth, manifested in the beautiful green, the delicate white, and all the variegated colors,-the manifestation of life in its freshness and brightness,-that is the clothing of the lily. It is God's own clothing, such as God himself wears,-his own life shining forth and making this beautiful garment. Now what does he say? "If God so clothe the grass of the field,"-how? like Solomon?-"shall he not much more clothe you?" 

I dare say you have all thought of that text much as I have in times past: "Why, yes, there is a promise that God will clothe us with fairly good clothing, perhaps even broadcloth; we can trust the Lord to give us something fairly good." But what does he say?-He says he will give us better clothing than Solomon had, because the lily is arrayed in greater glory than Solomon, and God will "much more clothe you." "Will he give us a more brilliant array than Solomon had?"-Oh, no; that is not the sort of clothing to be especially proud of; it is rather a thing to be ashamed of. Why?-It is a sign of the curse. Every time a person looks at the clothing he has to wear, he should think, "Ah, this is an evidence of the curse; if it were not for the curse, we should not need this clothing." So instead of being pro ud of what we have on, we ought to feel that it is an evidence of our fallen condition,-that we are under the curse. Those who glory in the clothing they put on, glory in their shame. A recognition of this fact will lead us to wear such clothing as will attract just as little attention as possible. We must wear clothing in this present life, for decency's sake and for comfort's sake, but we will make that fact as little obtrusive as possible, because the more we intrude our clothing upon people, calling attention to it by its striking character, the more we advertise our fallen condition. 

God clothed the lily with his own beauteous life. "If God so clothe the grass of the field, . . . will he not much more clothe you?" How?-He clothed the lily with his own life; and if he does that, he will much more clothe you with his own life. He will clothe us with "light as with a garment;" for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; "he will beautify the meek with salvation." So we can sing and pray with the psalmist: "Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." (Ps. 90:16, 17.) God will clothe us with his own beauty, with his own life, with his own light; and when he does that which is greatest, of course he will do that which is least,-give us the little thing necessary for this life." 



March 9, 1899 EJW, MMC 10 



 




  "Christ says, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Matthew 6:28, 29). No artist can produce the beautiful tints which God gives to the flowers. "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" 

(Matthew 6:30).  



1SAT 327