It is said that a mother found her small boy standing beside a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When she asked, "What in the world are you doing there?" he naively answered, "Why, I am trying to grow to be a man." His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his being planted in the ground in order to grow like the sunflower. Then, patting him gently on the head, she said, "Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. You can never grow bigger by trying. just come right in and eat enough good food and have plenty of play and you will soon grow to be a man without trying so hard." Harry's mother was right. There could not be a better answer to the question: "How do the lilies grow?" than Hannah Whitehall Smith's comment, "They grow without trying." Our deepest spiritual life is the life of self unconsciousness through which we become united to Christ. We live continually on His life, being nourished, fed and constantly filled with His Spirit and presence and all the fullness of His imparted life.
