Consider the Lilies
for Mildred Dolores Orr

[intro]

[verse]
The bell above the door would ring,
the damp Houma morning coming in.
Cool green water, cellophane,
a girl with roses to her chin.
They called you Sissy at the shop.
You cut the stems out on a slant.
Nobody called it preaching, Grandmother,
but every window was a psalm.

[chorus]
Consider the lilies, how they grow —
they do not labor, do not spin.
Not Solomon in all his glory
was dressed as fine as one of them.
You held them in your hands all day,
the very flowers Jesus named.
He said, take no thought for tomorrow.
Grandmother, you never did.

[verse]
You made the flowers for the weddings
and you made them for the graves.
The bride and then the widow
came through one door in seven days.
You'd lock the door and cut the lights
when the last delivery was made,
and you went home and trusted God
with tomorrow, unafraid.

[chorus]
(repeat)

[bridge]
Not one flower that you sold
is living now — they never do.
But the five you raised are living,
and their children, and theirs too.

[outro]
Consider the lilies, how they grow.
He has never lost a one.
Grandmother, He is keeping you
the way you kept the roses —
in cool water, out of the heat,
till the morning that He comes.