The obedience of the lily and the bird are perfected in that they achieve their perfection at the very moment when their destruction begins. All of nature achieves a point of ripeness or perfection. After this moment begins the period of gradual decay. The lily and the bird submit to this process. The enjoyment of this brief moment of fruition is in a sense a very esthetic pleasure.
Life is brief as are our joys.
But examined from a religious standpoint, the lily and the bird are obedient in that they conform to the design of their Maker. We too must yield to this design, but willingly. A man, or we men, in the situation of the lily would be in despair at the thought that coming into existence and destruction was one thing, and therefore would prevent ourselves by despair from becoming what we might become, though it were but for an instant. With the lily it is otherwise. It was absolutely obedient, hence it became itself in its beauty, it became actually its whole possibility, undisturbed, absolutely undisturbed by the thought that the same instant was its death.