Tiger Lily
Psalm 126- a song of ascents.
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream. Our mouths were filled with laughter then, and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord had done great things for us; we were joyful.
Restore our fortunes, Lord, like watercourses in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. Though one goes along weeping, carrying the bag of seed, he will surely come back with shouts of joy, carrying his sheaves.
Devon walked out of his yard at the summons of his neighborhood cardinal. The all too familiar song seemed to carry him out the door. As he turned the corner, something new popped up from the ground, surrounded by weeds and debris. A single tiger lily, boasting profoundly of its new seasonal jacket. Brown spots, the color of the earth below, accent it with a goldenrod yellow pigment, making this single treasure mesmerizingly captivating. That, paired with the ballad of the cardinal, made Devon feel as though he had been transported to another world. He felt like the luckiest person in the world to have such glory resurrect from the deathbed that is his barren ground of a backyard.
Miracles proven real.
Blessings begging him to worship
A gift from God.
At once, Devon went feverishly to dig up this lily because he didn't want anything to damage it. With a renewed sense of joy, he didn't want to lose this feeling that seemed to be spreading throughout his body, the same way his mom had spread butter on his toast that morning. Hands blackened by the soul he had just ripped apart, Devon came running inside to show his mom the spoils of the new world he had just traversed.
“Mother, look what I have!” Devon screamed. “I found a tiger lily in the weeds. I’m going to keep it forever.” But mother is wise. And equally kind. And so she smiles at her son in a way that mothers do when they don't want to hurt their sons.
“Son, you can keep it, but you can't keep it forever.”
Puzzled, Devon slightly tilted his head to the left. “Why not?”
“Because this beauty isn’t meant to be saved”, his mother replied. “It’s meant to surprise us with the joy of its arrival so that we will comprehend how precious a gift it is. It’s meant to live on in our hearts as a pulsating reminder that joy is possible. But son, it isn’t meant to be saved. The joy that you discovered today was today’s treasure.
“You can’t save it for tomorrow, but it can be reproduced, and you can have more of it.”
“How! Tell me how! I want more of this”, Devon pleaded. His mother sighed, knowing the hurt that her next words would bring to his little pure heart. “You have to bury it.” Bury it! Devon exclaimed. “But it will get swallowed up with the other weeds. I’ll lose it forever!”
Devon’s mom closed the distance between herself and her son, whose eyes had begun to fill with tears. “My son. My precious boy. This joy that you ripped from the ground is stronger than the dragon’s scales from your storybook. No weed could destroy it. This flower is the type that grows more when its face is pressed down below the ground. Underneath the surface of the earth, its superpowers come to life.” “Superpowers?” asked Devon as he wiped his eyes. “Yes, you see this here joy is from another world. A place where dead things live again. A place that recycles joy to the rhythm of the Creator's heartbeat. If you want more joy, you must bury it.”
His mom took his hand and walked him back to the place where heaven had invaded Earth. The remnants of that strange place still echoed in the atmosphere. There, Devon got on his knees, dug out a hole with his hands, and placed the flower in the earth. Tears ran down his cheeks and watered the ground as he laid the dirt over the flower. His mother stood over her little boy with a gentle smile, knowing that his tears would spring up from the ground in God's timing. Devon whispers a short prayer,
“Come back. Come back to me, please.”
