Nothing but a Daylily

“A daylily,” he said. “I am nothing but a daylily.”

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are in bloom here on the Cape, blooming in glorious, profuse mounds along Old Kings Highway, in perennial gardens overlooking the bays and beaches, in borders fronting white picket fences. The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words ἡμέρα (hēmera) "day" and καλός (kalos) "beautiful". The blooms generally last but 24 hours, opening with the morning sun, closing as evening fades into night, and then are gone forever.

 A man of a certain age, his observation would have been unlikely for a younger man, for those who believe they are immortal and have yet to realize that this shall not last forever. He was in good health, he said, but the fact of his approaching annual physical, at which he would be told the results of what he hoped was just routine blood work, gave him great pause.

“You see,” he said, “I have plans, things to do. Important stuff at work that simply has to get done. Children at home who will need me for years, a spouse who would have such a hard time of it were I not around. And yet – if I get bad news today, it could just all crumble away overnight.”

I waited, resisting the temptation to rush in with baseless assurances and what he would know were simply platitudes.

“But you know,” he continued, “I’m okay with that, I think. With being a daylily. Because they are so beautiful, and their time, although limited, is such a gift. And I know my worrying about that check-up is not going to change whatever the news is, and I know as well that when all is said and done, that I, and my family, and all the rest of it, are in good hands. Come what may.”

Beautiful!

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you…. Luke 12