Two of my prettiest garden favorites are irises and daylilies. The irises bloom in April, just as the spring bulbs fade, and then the daylilies take over for the last part of May through July.

If you go to purchase them, you will see that they are sold as “fans.” This describes the way the plants grow, with their leaves alternating from the new growth in the center, outward in two directions to form a fan. The appearance is much like the old-time collapsible hand fans that ladies would use to keep themselves cool. Very appropriate – irises and daylilies are definitely cool plants.

Oh, I sure am a fan of the fans! Calling myself a “fan” doesn’t mean I’ll blow hot air at you. In this usage, it of course means that I’m an admirer and enthusiast of flowers that grow in fan shapes. I hunt them down, I collect them, I prize them and tenderly care for them.

Maybe I’m less of a fan than the people who shop at Shreiner’s for the newest iris, and pay $65.00 for a fan that might not survive. Daylilies can cost $200.00 or more for new varieties!

One of my friends recently gave a garden tour, and offered to give me a few fans of a daylily that used to cost $65.00 per fan. Now that this variety has been growing and reproducing for several years, the availability has brought down the price. They are not as “precious” as they once were, although I will prize this flower in my garden for its subtle shades of cream and pink, and the fact that it was given by a friend.

I prize and treasure an odd-colored iris that came to me by chance. It was struggling last month after being transplanted, and I discovered that it had a bacterial infection. I dug it, washed it, cut out the diseased area, disinfected it, and it is now “curing” on my shelf, awaiting careful transplanting. Why all this trouble? Because it is a tiny rhizome of a very unusual iris, and it is the only one I have ever seen with this coloration. It’s pretty special.

There will never be anything I value more, however, than my precious Savior’s gift to me of his own life. It is precious, because it is the only life that was ever lived without sin. Jesus is the only Son of God. There is only one path that leads to eternal life, and that is through Jesus (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).

Everything that I am, all that I do, all that I even dream of, should be colored by the presence of Jesus Christ. Alright, that goes past being a “fan” and into “fanatic.” And why shouldn’t we be fanatics? He gave everything for us. He left the splendor of Heaven and came to earth to take on the form of a created being, a flimsy human form. And in that form, he was betrayed, ridiculed, tortured, and killed.

The most valuable and rare of beings came to redeem, at an immeasurable cost, the most common and unworthy of his own creation – mankind. That’s difficult to fathom!

The word “fan” comes from the root word “fanatic.” While “fanatic” may seem extreme, the cost for our redemption demands nothing less. I was derided as a “Jesus freak” in high school. I may be accused of “clinging to my religion” today, but what I cling to is the One who made all the difference in my eternal destiny. Yeah, I’m a big fan. Are you?

by Christine Berglund @ www.forthright.net

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The “good confessi0n” (a Bible lesson for children)

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