"I have found a friend in Jesus, he’s everything to me, he’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. He’s the Lily of the Valley, he’s the bright and Morning Star, he’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul."

I could only remember a snippet of this old hymn so I had to go searching for it  today. I remember singing it as a child, mostly at hymn sing gatherings on hot, humid, summer Sunday nights. The ceiling fans of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church turned lazily in the summer heat and we all fanned ourselves as we sang. We could work up quite a sweat singing those old hymns!

I’m not sure I understood the reference to Jesus as "lily of the valley" at the time but the song had a great tune and I liked singing it. I later learned that a legend says that, while standing at the cross, Mary, Jesus’ mother wept. As she did her tears fell and lilies of the valley sprang from the ground. That story must have been an inspiration for the hymn writer. I did like thinking of Jesus as this sweet, fragrant flower. After all, wasn’t lily of the valley May’s flower, my birthday flower?

Those dainty, bell-like flowers,surrounded by such out of proportion leaves, are showing themselves these days. Our side yard, which is shaded by large evergreens, produces more and more of them each year. A walk in our yard yields their very particular scent, simple and pure, a sure sign that summer is just around the corner.

The white flowers don’t last long, their season is short. If you get distracted or are busy doing other "May things" of which there are many,  you can miss them all together.  Perhaps their sweetness is intensified by their short life, their simplicity, their lack of ‘showiness’. After all, they are a hardy flower with deep roots that form extensive colonies by spreading underground.  They like to reach out and grow in places that other flowers don’t, can’t, won’t. They fight their way into the world through cold and ice,reaching toward the Sun. They could go unnoticed if a person’s eyes were looking the other way, if their heart was not open to them.

Jesus…….Lily of the Valley…….It has taken some years but maybe I get it now.