The Lily and a Bird

"Once upon a time," Kierkegaard writes as he tells the story of a lily and a bird. I'll retell it in my own words, maybe Kierkegaard won't mind.

Once upon a time a lily grew in a secluded place beside a clear, running brook. It lived in happy companionship with some nettles and a few little flowers that grew nearby. The lily was beautiful--more so than King Solomon's glory--and carefree and happy.

One day a little bird visited the lily. It came the next day and then disappeared. The bird's actions seemed strange to the lily who wondered why the bird was so fickle, why didn't the bird stay put like the little flowers nearby?

The little bird was proud and naughty. Instead of delighting in the lily's beauty, the bird showed off its freedom by coming and going at will, making the lily feel its bondage. The bird added insult to injury by telling the lily about other places where lilies grew more beautiful than it and where life was one endless party.

Visit after visit the little bird humiliated the lily until the lily wondered if it had a right to be called a lily at all. So the lily began to worry. "I'm inferior and insignificant," the lily said to itself, "If I had only been placed somewhere else, under different circumstances, then I might become the most magnificent lily in the field!"

Day after day the bird flew back and forth and with each visit the lily became more despondent. Finally, the lily confided in the little bird. And the bird agreed to help. Early the next morning the little bird arrived and pecked away at the soil around the lily's root. In time, the lily was free. And, according to their plan to relocate the lily to a better place, the little bird picked up the lily in its beak and flew off to replant the lily in a new place where life would be magnificent, full. and happy.

But, on the way the lily wilted, withered, and died.

Is the grass always greener on the other side? Does my contentment rest in where I am or in where I am not? Do I get preoccupied with wanting more and more and more, and wanting to be somewhere else, wanting to beat my competition that I forget the dignity of my own humanity and the graciousness of my Creator?

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers--most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving" -- Jesus, Matt. 6:30-31.