Slowly paddling a canoe through a bed of water lilies is a sweet experience. Seeing the morning or late afternoon sun on the blossoms and flat leaves works in the imagination toward a quiet , precious beauty. You know that for centuries, probably millennia, such a beauty has touched the minds of countless others, and led to a peace that our ancestors also experienced.

In San Angelo Texas there exists the International Water Lily Collection that consists of dozens of man-made ponds containing a rich variety of water lilies in a myriad of colors and even shapes. When I visited it, there were artists’ easels set up around the ponds and artists at work interpreting the irresistible beauty of the ponds. Images of the flowers were mirrored in the water. It was as if traces of Eden were present on today’s earth, having never really left, and inviting us to create as God Himself creates. “Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation : seed-bearing plants and trees on land. . . according to their various kinds. . . and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11)

Because evil is so very visible in our world, we sometimes become suspicious of anything that might seem to be good, but God declared all creation “good” at His hand, and made sure that goodness could still exist and be experienced on His earth for all time.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”(for disbelieving)(Romans 1:20).

Water lilies in bloom convey serenity and calm. They move with the water and can be almost hypnotic. Watching them is soothing and even renewing, as the psalmist wrote, “I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child I am content.” (Psalm 131:2) St. Paul echoes the psalmist, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11)

Water lilies are more than an accident of nature. They are a gift from God.

Love in Him,

Prue