"white-robed apostles of hope."

 "White-Robed Apostles of Hope". 

Lilies were apparently found growing in the garden of Gethsemane after Christ’s death. The lilies were said to have sprung up from where Christ hung during the last hours of his crucifixion and commemorate his ultimate sacrifice for mankind. Churches line their altars and envelop their crosses with a multitude of Easter Lilies, to signify the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope of eternal life.

Easter morn with lilies fair

Fills the church with perfumes rare,

As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallow'd day.
Easter Lilies bending low
in the golden afterglow,
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.

-Louise Lewin Matthews

The Lily more than just a beautiful white flower, a heavenly symbolize for the spiritual values of Easter: purity, life and renewel. The Bible mentions lilies 15 times in 15 different verses. Of these 15 mentions, 8 of them occur in the Song of Solomon. 

 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Song of Solomon 2:1

Renewel:The lily is a flower that has many medicinal virtues; the distilled water of a lily is good to restore a lost voice, it helps faintness, is good for the liver, helps the dropsy; and the oil of it is good for divers maladies. 

-The great and incomparable virtue that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, is

excellently good to cure all the diseases and maladies of the soul;

-by His blessed infusion of grace; in a word, there is no malady too hard for this spiritual Physician.

Life: It is observed that the lily is exceeding fruitful; one root puts forth fifty bulbs or scallions: Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He brings forth much fruit (John 12:24)

-The lily is the tallest of flowers, yet hangs down its head

Jesus Christ being higher than the mighty princes, kings & emperors of the earth, higher than heaven or angels, and yet is humble and lowly in heart; seems to hang down his head. May we learn to be humble.

Purity: White is a picture of purity (Revelation 3:4) Within the flower are seven grains or seeds the color of gold, so amiable that it was said, “That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:29) So even a king, in the height of his grandeur and magnificence dressed out in the most splendid manner, was exceeded in array by a single lily.

-He is holiness itself. His glory is infinite, within and without, every way glorious; and so it is a symbolizism for ultimate perfection and beauty. It is Jesus himself.

Photo credit: Cross  depth of field  lilies