Sirach 39:13-16 “Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom like a rose growing by a stream of water. Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: “All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.” This episode talks about how we are all different and that is how we are supposed to be. It also talks about home important it is to spread God's Love and to praise Him. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Blossom Like A Lily
Sirach 39:13-16 “Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom like a rose growing by a stream of water. Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: “All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.”
I decided to use the same verse again today because there is so much in it and I only talked about the first line yesterday. Today we will pick up starting at the second line. It says, “Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily.” When I read the first part about sending out fragrance like incense I immediately thought of going out and spreading God’s work. God loves us and He fills us with so much love, hope, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and so many other things. However, He doesn’t want us to just keep all of that to ourselves. He wants us to go out and share this with the world. If the world seems too big for you to think about, consider sharing it with those you love first.
Can you share God’s love with those that live in your house, or your parents and siblings, or your friends? Who can you think of that you can share God’s love and mercy with? What about His forgiveness? Is there some you know that could really use some forgiveness. Remember God’s forgiveness is not the same as our forgiveness. We tend to tie a bunch of expectations or conditions to our forgiveness. God just forgives, freely, just because we asked. Can you be an example of this type of forgiveness for someone today?
I have talked a lot about how God wants us to live our lives as a witness to Him. I have mentioned that He is calling us to live in a manor that exemplifies His values, not those of the world. The reason I keep saying this is because He keeps saying it. Each week God tells our prayer group some version of this sentiment. For instance, this was the word we received today, “You must be the shining light of Christ to each other. Let everyone see your total surrender to God. Demonstrate the surrender by accepting whatever he gives you and giving whatever he takes from you. Your prompt, blind, simple and cheerful obedience will show what loving trust means. Your joyful smile will demonstrate how grateful you are to God for having chosen you to serve him. Let us not forget that our aim is to quench the thirst of Jesus for souls.” Did you catch that last part? “Our aim is to quench the thirst of Jesus for souls.” God doesn’t want any of His children to have to spend eternity apart from Him. He wants all of His children saved. Our aim is to witness of his love and show people there is a different way. There is an unconditional love that they have been searching for and it is found in Jesus.
The next part of the sentence in this verse had me stumped. It says “Put forth blossoms like a lily.” I am not a flower expert and I had not idea what that meant. I was tempted to skip over it, as I often am when I don’t understand something. Do you ever do that, skip over something that you don’t understand? I decided to spend a few minutes and find out why lillies were so special. What if I skipped over it and it had a significant meaning? The point of doing this podcast is so that we can all understand the scriptures a little better. If I skip over all the things I don’t understand this podcast wouldn’t last very long. I am so glad I took the time to research. Before I tell you what I found I just want you to know it was in a theology paper or in an explanation of this scripture. I do not know if this is why this verse says blossom like Lillies but it really resonated with me so I wanted to share it with you.
The article I found was titled, “3 Fun Facts About Lilies” posted one Freytagsflorist.com. The first fact about lilies is they come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and colors. This is true for us and this is true for faith as well. We are all different, we are all unique. We all learn about God differently, we pray differently, we encounter God differently. What works really well for one person, might not work at all for another person. For instance, I really love music at mass. It makes me so happy and just fills me with so much joy. However, my husband is not a fan of music. He prefers a nice quiet mass where he can pray and just be with the Lord. One way is not better than the other, they are just different. So when the verse is saying bloom like lilies, maybe it means we should be ok with being different. Maybe it is saying that although we may look different in shape, size and color, we are all the same, we are all lilies.
The second fact about lilies is they symbolize purity and refined beauty. Isn’t that beautiful? Can’t you just see the Lord asking us to blossom in purity and refined beauty? Also, the various colors convey different meanings. For instance, a white lily traditionally symbolizes modesty and new beginnings. An orange lily symbolizes passion. A Lily of the Valley is a symbol of sweetness and a pure heart. These are all things God would want from us. It could also symbolize how we are all different and so we bring different things to the table. Some of us are good at writing, reading, volunteering, singing, being a eucharistic minister, or a religious education teacher. Just as each lily color represents something different, so do we. This is to be celebrated and encouraged.
The third fact was the one I read and though, yep, it was no accident that the author chose lily as the flower. The oil extracted from lilies actually has been found to have healing and softening properties. The oil has been known to work well for cracked and dry skin. There is no greater healer than our Lord. So the fact that the lily has healing properties is perfect. Do you see why I am glad I took the time to understand more about lilies. Sometimes we might skip right past things, thinking that they aren’t really that important. I am sure the Holy Spirit lead me to this article so I could share it with all of you. Whether this is the exact reason why this language was selected for this verse, I don’t know. However, I do know it opened my eyes a little more to how we are different and why that can be a good thing.
The rest of this verse today talks about praise. “Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: “All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.” I don’t think I could ever really state enough how important praise is. The Lord does so much for us and He really loves it when we praise Him. This can be something that is easy to forget. We don’t forget to ask for prayers, but we can easily forget to praise Him when we get our answers. It can also be hard to praise the Lord when we don’t see answers to our prayers. I’ve talked about this before so I won’t spend a lot of time on it, but no matter your circumstances, there is always something you can be grateful for. There is always something you can praise the Lord for. If you are feeling down, a great way to get out of that is to start praising the Lord.
From this one short verse we learned that we need to nourish our mind, body, and souls. We learned we need to spread God’s love and His message to one and all. We learned that we are all different and that is how we are meant to be. That is a good thing and we all bring something different to the table. And finally, to praise the Lord. Sing Him songs, be grateful and tell all the world how awesome He is. Isn’t it incredible how much we can get out of 4 short verses in the Bible. God is amazing!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to bring others too you, please help us. Lord, we say yes to all you ask of us. Lord, help us to recognize our differences bring us together. Our differences help the church to grow. Help us to praise you Lord, with every breath we take. Help us to blossom like lilies. Help us to learn you healing properties so we can pass them on to others. We love you Lord and we are so grateful for all you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to seeing you on Monday. Have a Blessed weekend.