Daffodil

Daffodils are wonderfully pretty flowers. They are beautiful in their appearance, but also beautiful in their timing; as the snows fall and the wintry winds still blow, the daffodil continues to sprout and shoot. See how it shrivels and decays as spring turns to summer, below. It might be one of the quickest flowers to bloom, but it is also one of the soonest to die.

Its Latin name is Narcissus. Narcissus was a figure from Greek mythology, a hunter, whose beauty was so great that he fell in love with his own reflection. One account attributes this to the goddess Nemesis who sought to punish him for peremptorily rejecting Echo, the mountain nymph who fell in love with him.

Temporal beauty might fascinate you during your time on earth, but it will not endure beyond the grave. In the meantime, it withers and decays, it dies and disappears. The only beauty worth seeking is the beauty of Jesus Christ, the source of all goodness and majesty:

One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4