Have you read what we told you last week [no story found for children in previous issue], about little children being plants in the Lord’s garden? If so, you will remember that it is the light which makes the plants grow strong and bear fruit. Now let us see something else that the light will do for us.

Do you know what it is that gives the flowers all their different colours, and makes them so beautiful? Jesus tells us to “consider the lilies,” and says: “I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Then He says that it is God who so clothes the grass of the field. Each little flower of the field has a garment, not made by its own toiling and spinning, but given to it by its Creator who clothes it with beauty.

Although the flowers look so different one from another, and wear so many beautiful shades and tints of colour, yet their garments are all made from exactly the same material. And now you can tell what this is?

It is the light, the beautiful sunlight, with which each little flower is clothed. The light which looks white to us is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. The flowers, like the rainbow, reflect these different colours, and shows how beautiful the light really is.

Some things swallow up a part of the colour, and reflect, or give back, the rest, and it is what they give back that gives them their colour. Those things which swallow up all the light, and do not give back any, are black, like coal. But that which gives back all, and swallows up none, is pure white, like the snow.

This is how the flowers get their colours. Some swallow up all but the red colours, and give that back, like the red rose; some, like the forget-me-not, give back only the blue; and others, like the pure white lily, reflect all the light which shines upon them.

Of course the flowers can reflect these colours only when the light is shining. At night, when the sun goes down and the light is withdrawn, their beautiful garments are put off for a time, until the light returns and clothes them again.

Jesus says, “I am the Light.” The sun is not the light, but only a light-bearer. It reflects to this world the glory which shines upon it from the face of Jesus Christ, who is the true “Light of the world.” And so the flowers that show the beautiful colours that are in the light, are really revealing to us the beauty of the Lord, and are clothed with His glory.

You will now see that the Book of nature, about which you will perhaps remember that we talked a little while ago, is a great mirror, into which we may look, and “behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.” All the beautiful things with which He has filled the earth, are the reflection of God Himself. Many cannot see Him in His works, because sin has put a veil on their hearts and blinded their eyes. But Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Dear children, ask Jesus to cleanse your hearts from all sin, and to open your eyes to see Him in all the things that He has made. Then as you look into His Word and works, the light of His countenance will shine out upon you, and as you reflect or give out this light to others, you too will be clothed with the glory of the Lord, “the beauty of holiness.”

The Present Truth – April 21, 1897
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  Beautiful Garments