The Beach Spider Lily
Years ago, my sister-in-law, Donice, pruned her beach spider lilies by dividing the bulbs at the root ball. She gave me a few bulbs to plant at our river cabin.
“They don’t need any care,” she added with a wink.
She was right.
I planted them beside the well house and forgot about them. No watering. No fertilizer. No pruning. Year after year they have flourished. In fact, the bulbs have multiplied so much that we’ve divided them several times and planted them in other places around the camp.
While walking on the beach recently, I noticed another beach spider lily growing in a vacant lot. The grass around it was tall. Broken boards and old debris were scattered nearby. A few weathered pilings stood as silent reminders that a beach house once occupied that spot before a storm claimed it.
The house was gone.
The people were gone.
Only the old supports remained.
But right there, blooming in the middle of the destruction, was a beach spider lily in full bloom.
The storm had taken almost everything, but it had not taken the life hidden beneath the surface.
Isn’t that how God works in us?
Life brings storms that leave us standing in places we never expected. Relationships change. Dreams crumble. Health fails. Loss comes. Yet if our roots are anchored in Christ, the storms may strip away what is visible, but they cannot destroy the life He has planted deep within us.
Like those beach spider lily bulbs, our strength is not found in what everyone sees above ground. It is found in what God is growing where no one else can see.
Sometimes, after surviving the hardest seasons, we do more than endure. We multiply. Our faith encourages someone else. Our testimony gives another person hope. Our scars become evidence of God’s faithfulness.
The world may see what the storm destroyed.
God sees what the storm could not kill.
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV)
