The White Easter Lily
Guest Author: Jane Tyson Clement
Once long ago, near a Village far away, there lived an old peasant know as Ivan. He had a little hut, a small garden, a dog named Rubles, and a six-year-old nephew, Peter, who was an orphan. Ivan was not a bad man, but he couldn’t be called a good man either. He was cross and dirty. He seldom spoke and when he did it was always unpleasant. He paid no attention to his neighbors, never showed them kindness, and refused any friendliness they offered him. Eventually they paid no attention to him and let him go his way. As for Rubles the dog, he was afraid of his master and never went near him. Rubles would bark at strangers and drive off foxes that tried to molest the hens. Ivan kept the dog and left scraps for him, but never stroked or praised him. Peter was a silent little boy, since he was never spoken to except in anger. He had no friends, for the village children feared his uncle too much to come near him, and Peter was too shy to speak to anyone. He ran in the woods and made up his own lonely games. His uncle had never beaten him hard but had laid a stick to him now and then, and spoke to him fiercely once in a while.
All of this was bad enough, but added to it was filth and ugliness. The little cottage was brown and bleak. The windows were filthy, the wooden rafters sooty, and all the walls and corners were filled with cobwebs. The floor was covered with mud drug in from the many months of rain. The hearth was black, the pots and kettles dingy, the big bed for Ivan and the trundle bed for Peter tumbled and unmade. It was a sorry sight and no better outdoors. Weeds grew everywhere, vegetables came us as best they could, and not a flower was to be seen.
Rubles was thin and dirty and full of burrs. Poor Peter wore rags, his hair was tangled with straw from his bed, and he was so filthy, one could scarcely see the boy beneath. As for Ivan, he was huge. His black hair and beard were unkempt, and he looked terrifying. He was so unpleasant to look at that all he met turned their heads away, and passed him as quickly as possible.
One bleak March day, Ivan had to go to the village to fetch some beans. As he trudged along the road, homeward bound again, in the distance he saw a man coming toward him. Ivan was ready to pass him by without a glance, but in spite of himself Ivan looked full at him. Then he could not look away. The stranger was young, tall, with a shepherd’s staff. On one arm he carried a sheaf of white lilies, so fair and glowing that they dazzled the eye. Ivan stopped in his tracks, and with a smile the stranger stopped also. He said to Ivan, “Good day, Friend!” There was silence and the stranger said, “What is it you see?” Ivan lifted his eyes to the man’s face. The light there was like the lilies, and he looked at them again. “Those Flowers…I never saw any so fair.” “One of them is yours,” said the stranger. “Mine” said Ivan. The stranger took one of them and offered it to Ivan, who exclaimed, “What do you want for it? I am a poor man.” “I want nothing in return, only that you keep the flower clean and pure.” Ivan wiped his dirty hand on his coat and reached for the lily. Ivan not knowing what to do with the precious thing, he had looked up and the stranger had disappeared. Carefully Ivan carried the lily home.
Once inside the door, Ivan stood looking at all the filth and disorder and told Peter about the man giving him the lily. He told Peter how he said he must keep it clean and pure. He asked Peter, “What am I to do with it?” Peter instantly said we must find something to hold it. On that high shelf you put an empty wine bottle. That would do.” Ivan told Peter he must hold the flowerwhile he got the bottle down but he said “Your hands are too dirty! Draw water from the well and wash first!” Peter washed his hands and then Ivan said your face is too dirty she went to the well and got a bucket of water and a rag and scrubbed Peter’s face.
He got the bottle but it too was dirty, so Ivan took it to the well and brought it in clean and shining, filled with clear water. He set the lily in the bottle and placed the bottle in the window. Ivan then told Peter that “This fair lily cannot live in such a place; I must clean it.” Peter said, “Can I help?”
It was a hard task and it took more than a day. Everything was washed, the table was washed, the beds aired and put in order and the pots and pans scrubbed. Sunlight flooded into the washed windows. The lily glowed in the window sill. They saw the difference in the house and they realized how dirty they were. Ivan said, “We don’t belong in a house like this!” “Next we scrub ourselves.”
Ivan and Peter scrubbed and when they finished Ivan went to the Village to buy new clothes for both of them. On the way back Rubles met him and he saw how dirty and matted up Rubles was.
It took Rubles awhile to see the difference and to hear the difference. Ivan and Peter got Rubles matted up hair clean and untangled. And Ivan felt a strange glow in his heart.
Ivan’s whole life was turned around by one who gave him a lily. Our lives are all turned around this Easter season by the one who came and gave his life for each of us. Our lives are dirty and filled with sin. We like Ivan need a scrubbing and a change of attitude. Jesus is the Reason for the season and Jesus has come to change each of us. Jesus died for your sins. May the “White Lily” turn your life around!
For seven days the lily glowed and gleamed on the windowsill, and all life around it was transformed. Then on the seventh day it vanished. There was no trace of it to be found. When Ivan looked at Peter’s face he thought, “The lily glows there still.” When they saw the clean house, and spoke with love to each other, and greeted their neighbors, and tended the growing things in their new garden, each thought, “The lily still lives, though we see it no longer.”
