Gilding the Lily

Gilding the Lily

(ROCKWALL, TX — December 25, 2017) Have you ever heard the phrase, gilding the lily?  It’s a term that comes to my mind often, especially when I’m decorating for Christmas.  My mantel or my dining room table can always stand up under one more bit of bling, something sparkly and reflective.

It’s hard to guild a roaster-full of trail mix.  It’s brown, spicy, dry, and makes me thirsty.  I make a tub of it every year, giving it as gifts in little clear bags.  I have to dress the bags up with something festive because the gift itself is not appealing to the eyes.

I had quite a contrast of gifts this week.  My friend, Dottie, gilded the lily!  Dottie’s spiritual gift is cookies.  She is the Minister of Cookies.  Her decorated cookies are works of art that come with a guarantee of smiles and feelings of being richly loved.  That’s who she is…a lover of souls.

As I visually compared the gifts…hers and mine, I was struck by the contrast.  Her cookies were stacked on a clear glass, stemmed cake plate, carefully laying on a white paper doily, wrapped in clear wrapping so you could see the gift inside crying out to you of deliciousness.  Then she tied up the wrapping with beautiful gold ribbon, gold stars, and finished it off with a big gold ball ornament.  SHE GILDED THE LILY!!!

Then I looked at what I had given…brown, dry, crumbly, laced with Tabasco.  What a comparison!

Then I was reminded of His gift.  It wasn’t gilded.  It was wrapped in barn-like brown paper.  Instead of lovely lacey doilies, it was sprinkled with splinters.  The deliciousness came as she looked at that sweet face, the face she would ponder all her days.

The last time she saw Him, He was naked also.  Such humiliation for a Jewish man to be hanging on a tree, naked in front of His Mother!  I am weeping as I write this.  No gilding there either.

Don’t guild the creche or the Cross.  However, His Crown will be gilded.  The next time He comes, it won’t be in a cradle, it will be as One Coronated!  The Lily will be GUILDED!  Can’t wait.

Merry Christmas.  Have you received His gift?

By Paula Lively. Paula is a Volunteer Chaplain at Broadmoor Medical Lodge in Rockwall.  She is a VERY retired RN who loves serving the residents at Broadmoor.  She and her husband, Fred, have lived in Rockwall for 15 years.

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