Let's Talk Easter Gardens

It might not exactly feel like spring this week in Ohio, but considering we are now over a full week into April, I am clinging to the idea of spring and hoping that it warms up soon. Springtime is when we all get to shed our winter blues, open the windows, and get to cleaning.

One of my personal favorites when it comes to spring is that it is planting season. Our church here in Liberty Center is surrounded by cornfields and wheatfields and our congregation has a plethora of farmers that can assist someone who might be interested in learning about what to plant and when. For me, my parents own an acre of land and we use some of that land to garden. We have a good sized garden that we use to plant potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, canteloupe, watermelon, peppers, cucumbers, kale, spinach, and whatever else we can sneak a few plants of in the ground. We also have an extensive herb garden, containing about 30 herbs that we use to cook with, infuse water with, and garnish our foods with. I grew up gardening because my mom grew up gardening and I am grateful that I share the same love of growing our own food and plants as she does.

However, the love for gardening is not limited to food! My mom also adores flowers and we have flower gardens lining the front of the house, the barn, the back of the house, along the pool, along the fence, and in various other locations. When spring comes at the Rumsey house, it is all hands on deck to get the seeds in the ground, the gardens weeded, and to get our flowers from some local plant nurseries. One specific type of garden is our Easter Garden. We have a few different Easter gardens and here is where we plant our early bloomers--the flowers that bloom first and always by the time Easter has come.

When considering a topic for this week, it seemed almost obvious that the answer was to talk about Easter gardens! Easter is approaching and it would be a delightful time for you and your family to get your hands dirty and spend some time together outside, creating something that will last for years to come. Some of the flowers that would be good options for an Easter garden would be tulips, daffodils, crocus, and of course lilies. The crocus is the first bloomer of the season, often popping up in late February or March. They're captivating little blossoms that catch your eye when you begin to look through the snow and catch a glimpse of warmth. Tulips and daffodils generally come up together, with leafy beginnings that poke through the dirt. There are various colors and sizes of tulips and daffodils, so everyone in the family would be able to put their personal spin on how they want to contribute to the Easter Garden. Finally, this brings me to the lily. Lilies, like tulips and daffodils, have an abundance of choices to pick from. However, if your garden theme is truly Easter, it would be shocking to not have at least one traditionally white Easter lily in your spread.

Bing Images: Easter Lily – Center for Urban Agriculture (ugaurbanag.com)

Before we continue with Easter lilies, I first want to touch on Easter. Easter is a time for celebration. It is also a time for the Easter bunny to visit your home and bring young kids gifts. While the Easter bunny might be a reason to celebrate, the true cause for joy is that Easter is the day that Christians celebrate the rising of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus was crucified on a cross and then buried in a tomb. In front of the tomb was a large stone. On Easter, we celebrate that when the stone was rolled away, Jesus' body was not there, for it had risen again to be with the Father, just at Jesus had said it would be. This horrendous journey that Jesus went through saved all of His believing and faithful children from eternal damnation in Hell. Easter is really the crux of Christianity, for we believe that we cannot get into Heaven through good works, but only through the grace of God. And by His grace, and His grace alone, we are saved. When Jesus died on the cross, He died for our sins, the ones that we have already made, the ones we make today, and the ones we have not made yet. Without Easter, without Jesus paying for our sins, we are all eternally damned because of our sinful nature. And this is why Easter is such an important holiday, such an important time to spread joy and gratitude. The tomb is empty, He is risen! And we are saved!

Now that we understand why Easter should be honored, we can find different ways to honor the holiday. One of the ways to honor Easter is often through purchasing flowers at your church to be able to decorate church. At St. Paul's, we provide this option so our congregation can show their joy and support through buying a flower in remembrance or in honor of a loved one. One of the options to purchase is always the Easter lily. You get to take your purchased flowers home after the service and since lilies are perennials, they will come back and bloom wherever you planted their bulb. This can be a great way to start an Easter garden--purchase a lily to decorate church and after church take the lily home. It can decorate your home until it is done blooming and then you can plant it wherever you want your Easter garden to be! It will come back year after year and you can add to it each year!

Traditional Easter lilies are strikingly white in color, which makes them the perfect color to symbolize the rising of Christ and His purity. The color also symbolizes the way in which Christ's hanging on the cross cleansed us of our sins, so we are seen as pure and clean in God's eyes. The lily has often been associated also with the purity of the Virgin Mary, which is why lilies are also often seen at weddings. Along the vein of purity, at funerals, the white Easter lily is used to represent the shedding of our sinful, earthly body and the reunion with the pure Christ up in Heaven. All across the board, Easter lilies hold significance, weaving themselves throughout Christianity and what Christianity means to us as believers.

While the color is one the of most apparent reasons for the lily being chosen to represent Easter (along with other moments of purity), I recently learned that it is also the shape of the lily that makes it appealing for the Resurrection. The Easter lily is trumpet-shaped, allowing its bloom to signify the announcement of the empty tomb and how we can spread the good news by telling others about it. There are so many things that come after the Resurrection that make the proclamations abundant; The announcement from Christ to the world that the Messiah has paid its debt, the announcement that the tomb is empty, the announcement that we need Jesus to save us and that we should never consider ourselves worthy of Heaven on our own. The lily represents this all and more.

Its color, its shape, and also the lily's journey to blooming function as a metaphor for Easter. Lilies are bulbs, which means they are planted underground. The lily does not get to bloom until it pushes through the dirt and sprouts, then it continues to grow until it is tall enough and strong enough to sustain a bloom. This can be seen as a representation of how Christ's journey was hidden for a while-- underground, until He showed Himself to the world. Even then, the world often failed to see what was to come and how Jesus was spectacular, despite Him showing miracles and teaching the Truth. It took until it was Jesus' time to die and rise again before people could see His purity, His beauty, and His strength. In this way, we can once again see how the lily functions to accurately serve as the best floral representation of Easter.

Now that we can appreciate the beauty and significance of the traditional white Easter lily, I think I will be adding more of them to the Easter garden at my parents' house. And when Clay and I get a home ourselves, it might just be the first flower planted in our own Easter garden. I hope this journey of learning about the Easter lily gets you as excited for Easter as I am. And I hope it causes you to consider attending an Easter service, purchasing a lily for your church (or our church), and starting an Easter garden of your own. Let me know if you do--I would love to hear about it! If you are interested in attending church this Easter, you are more than welcome to join our service, and you can learn about our services at the St. Paul Lutheran Church & Preschool-Liberty Center Facebook page! God bless!

*Some information in this post was sourced from the following website: The Floral Meaning and History of the Easter Lily (flowerpowerdaily.com)