My wife and I both love daylilies. About 20 years ago, we were out at Godley’s Garden Center to pick out our first ones. We were looking over the ones he had when a truck pulled up with a fresh load of daylilies. We picked out several and went home and planted them. Several years later when we moved we took some starts of those lilies with us.
We planted them in the second house we owned and naturally through the years we bought some more as we found them. When we moved from our second home, we dug up and started again from all the lilies we had accumulated up until that point. Those same daylilies are blooming in our yard right now. Well, those and more that we have gotten through the years going to garden centers and daylily farms. We will be traveling to see my mother-in-law, who has quite a collection of her own. While visiting her, we plan to travel to a daylily farm up in Virginia where I am sure additions will be acquired for both our yards.
About four or five years ago, we found a daylily farm in our area. There were two sweet women who started, just like my wife and I, getting a few lilies here and there. They kept getting more and more until finally they had enough to start selling them. Naturally, we bought some from them, too.
The other night, my wife drove by the lady’s house to see if her daylilies were blooming and she saw a sign in the yard. She wasn’t quite sure what the sign said so I drove out to see the lady the other day. She had decided it was time to get out of the daylily business because her health wasn’t good enough to maintain all the lilies she had in her field. She has a couple of really nice beds close to the house where she is keeping some of her favorites.
I asked her what she planned to do with the rest of her daylilies and she said she wanted to get them to some good homes. My wife and I spent a long time selecting our favorites. Then we had to get home and find new places to plant them in our yard. Thank God I have a good tiller because it got a workout getting some lily beds ready in a hurry.
When you think about it, daylilies are beautiful but each blossom only lasts for one day. Granted, each plant has many blossoms, but still it’s hard to believe that something created to be so beautiful has such a brief life. In a way, it makes me think about this life here on earth in comparison to eternity. We are allowed to live an average of about eighty years and then life is over. We have our opportunity to bloom, to make the world a better place for a short period of time. Then we find out where we will spend eternity.
I know we are saved by grace and not by works, but I also know that God rewards those who do good works for the Kingdom. I want to be a man who lives to honor and please to my Father. I want my life’s bloom to reflect the glory of my Father in heaven. That means that I want to walk with integrity, both when I am in the public eye and when I am home alone.
I believe the best way to make beautiful blooms for God is by spending time with Him and by allowing His word to live in me. I believe that His word is where we get the strength to make beautiful blossoms. I also believe it is important to listen for His voice so I can know where He wants me to go and what He needs me to do. If I am a willing, obedient vessel, God can do things through me that I cannot imagine. I can produce better and more beautiful blooms for Him.
I want to encourage you to consider the brevity of life and the legacy you are leaving behind. Are you blooming for God? Are you fulfilling your purpose for the short time that we all get to live here on earth? If we live life from an eternal perspective, we are merely a daylily that has a short time to bloom and have an impact on our world. I am convinced that heaven will be a beautiful place to live, especially when you consider that daylilies will bloom for a thousand years at a time!

Doug Creamer teaches Marketing at East Davidson High School. His website is located at www.dougcreamer.com Contact him at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041 or email doug@dougcreamer.com