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Young World
The Easter lily
FABIOLA JACOB
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The flowers laughed at the lily and wondered how a flower without any colour or fragrance could be in their garden.
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White, trumpet-shaped Easter liles are one of the most beautiful seasonal flowers that bloom in April. Here’s a story of the Easter Lily: Long ago, in the outskirts of Jerusalem was a beautiful garden. From mighty olives and sturdy figs to bright young daisies, the garden was home to all kinds of plants and weeds. Every spring, all the flowers in the garden — the daisies, geraniums, liles and the tiny mustards — would burst into bloom. Bright red poppies
would sway their heads in the breeze as the air filled with the fragrance of the lilies and geraniums.
On one such lazy afternoon, the flowers hoped for a little more excitement in their lives. This idyllic garden was also the place where Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and influential member of the Jerusalem Council, had carved out a new tomb for himself, as was the custom in those days. And the flowers enjoyed all the activity that went on around them. Basking in their leisure, the flowers poked fun at each other and delighted in their rather harsh sense of humour. “I say, these lilies are the laziest of all” said the pink daisy, pointing a long petal at the bed of lilies. “They give us seasonal flowers a very bad name, indeed.” she quipped. And the earliest of the lilies— a pale orange flower, hung his head in shame. “And just look at the awful colour he is,” the poppy joined in. “It’s such a shame he grows among us!”
The poor lily almost wilted. “No fragrance, no colour and such a loner!” cried a bright little geranium. And the lily wished he hadn’t bloomed so early. He looked around couldn’t find any sign of the other lilies. Days passed without any sign of the other lilies. Soon, the little orange lily too dried up and was blown away. The flowers sighed with relief. Now, the gardener would plant more daisies, thought the daisy and the other flowers too thought the same.
Darkness at noon
And then on one peculiar day, the sun vanished and there was darkness in the middle of the afternoon. The flowers were speechless and quite forgot their own splendour, till the sun appeared again.
In the evening, they saw the most peculiar spectacle. Joseph of Arimathea came to the garden, carrying the wounded body of a young man, blood dripping from his nail-pierced wounds. The vain flowers immediately knew that this was no ordinary man but the Christ — the Lord of all creation, who was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world. They saw Joseph and his friend Nicodemus wrap up the body of Jesus in fresh linen and lay it inside the tomb. Soon soldiers came and sealed the tomb with a huge block of stone, and guarded it through the night.
All this activity was way beyond the flowers would have ever imagined, and they enjoyed it immensely. Early in the morning of the third day, when it was still dark, the flowers woke up to a rumbling sound from under the earth. To their amazement, they saw a beautiful angel in shining white robes and luminous wings, rolling the stone away from the tomb. And from inside the tomb came a blinding light. They saw Jesus Christ walking out, the nail-pierced wounds still fresh on his body.
And the sight they saw in that bright light, made them hang their head in shame. On the dark and barren lily bed were the whitest and the most beautiful lilies they had ever seen. The lilies had bloomed where drops of Christ’s blood had been shed. And when the Risen Christ walked past, the triumphant lilies bowed their heads in humility.
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