This is an original oil painting by Ruth Housley. I love to paint flowers and have for several years and love all kinds of them.
The lily is a flower that you see in churches at Easter time. The Latin name for the Easter Lily, is native to the Ryukyu Islands of Southern Japan.  The Latin name is Lilium longiforum.
Dating back to Biblical lore, the lily is mentioned numerous times in the Bible.  One of the most famous Biblical references is in the Sermon on the Mount, when Christ told his listeners:   "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet---Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Often called the "white-robed apostles of hope," lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony.  Tradition has it that the beautiful white lilies sprung up where drops of Christ's sweat fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress.  Churches continue this tradition at Easter time by banking their alters and surrounding their crosses with masses of Easter Lilies, to commerate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and  hope of life everlasting.



Song of Songs 2:1 "I am the Rose of Sharon, a Lily of the valley."