Lily of the Valley Archives - The Colley House

She is Here!…Lily Annette Colley

Posted on March 24, 2025

Dear Lily Annette,

It’s that quiet moment when I know you are here…I mean, you have been born, but there are really just a few of us who know. I’ve seen beautiful footage of you sucking your fingers. (Click here for that: IMG_7628.) I know that you are just under 8 pounds and you have been fearfully and wonderfully made. You have just spent your first night in the world of light. I cannot wait for you to meet your Mammy. She will love you, protectively and providentially, for all of the rest of her days!

I wish it was just a world of light. I mean, metaphorically, I wish the Light of the World permeated every heart that you will ever encounter and every place you will ever go. But the prince of darkness still has a real domain and he parades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). You will encounter people, one day, who belong to Him. They will try to take your very soul. They will try to wrest from you the things that are invaluable in exchange for the shiny things that are really just the decaying rubble that is this world.

But because of THE Lily, the Lily of the Valley, the bright and morning star, this day, your first full day on the planet, and all the other days will be filled with hope and light and goodness. God has given you parents who are determined to be sure you follow and grow toward the light. You will lean, like the field’s lilies, toward the Son. You will be given every spiritual luxury—family Bible time every single day, a strong church family, a regimen of nurture and discipline—every spiritual amenity to insure your days are sweet and directed by the pure truths from the Word of God. I cannot wait to see you grow in Him.

But, yes, I can wait. The sweet days of having a tiny finger wrapped around mine, of swaddling and waiting for first smiles and first laughs and first words and first steps are so fleeting and precious. I hope I get to share lots of them. I want to caress chubby cheeks and hold you close—so fresh from God’s arms to mine. Babies fresh from heaven are blessings that are incomparable in this life! I want to watch Maggie and Ellis love you and make you smile. I want to hear you say the name of Jesus when it first sweetens your lips. I can wait, but I can’t wait.

Papa and I are so very excited. You came along, as all the rest have, just when we needed you most. God’s timing is the best, every single time. He is the God of more. Last night, He filled our hearts with more joy, peace and love than we had ever thought possible when we had awakened to a challenging day just a few hours prior. You are the exceeding, abundant blessing of the God of More that we attempt, in our feeble way, to glorify (Eph. 3:20). We know you will always serve the God of More!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Maggie Colley and Irreplaceable Things.

Posted on February 24, 2025

Today we will gather with some friends and family in Collierville, Tennessee to honor the life of my mother-in-law, Beunah Magnolia Witty Colley. Born at home, to farming parents, Maggie grew up with seven siblings in Cannon County, Tennessee, Maggie was a twin. Beulah Mazola (Mazie) and Maggie looked just alike and were named by the old maid of the community who named pretty much all the babies in the community. Don’t you think she had a flair for it?

It was about forty-six years ago that I first visited in the home of Gary and Maggie Colley. I had just begun to date their son Glenn while I was attending Freed Hardeman College. In typical clumsy fashion, I was carrying a stack of plates after dinner to help with the dishes, when that stack became imbalanced and several of the plates crashed to the floor. The words that followed are forever seared in my mind. I said “Oh no!. I am so, so sorry. I cannot believe I did that! I will replace them!”

“Oh no!” she said. “They are irreplaceable.” Thus began a relationship of irreplaceable things for me: lifetime commitments, guidance that I often needed, and learning from a superb keeper at home (and so much more).

She was right. Those pink depression glass plates could not be bought at Dillards. She said that with a twinkle in her eye and we laughed and that statement “They are irreplaceable” went down into oft-repeated infamy in their home and ours. To this day, when something is irreparably broken, we comment with fondness, “It’s okay, It’s irreplaceable.” And I began my own collection of pink depression glass, in her honor. I still love it!

Maggie is the one in her dad’s arms. =)

It was forty years later that my sweet granddaughter Maggie would be born and bear her name. Sweet little Maggie has a lot of irreplaceable characteristics that remind me of the great-grandmother we honor today. She laughs often, loves to cook, loves God supremely and has an insatiable appetite for learning new things. These are traits that were obvious every precious time I was able to be with “Honey”, as her grandchildren affectionately came to call her. (What else would they call her? When they went to visit, they thought that was simply her name, because that’s what Gary called her almost every time he addressed her.) It was a sweet, sweet name!

We are thankful that all of the funeral services were completely planned out by PawPaw and Honey long before they left this life. Maggie did not know when she picked out the song “Lily of the Valley” that it would be led today by Caleb Colley and that, in just a few days, Caleb and his sweet wife, Rebekah, will be giving birth to Lily Annette Colley. It’s pretty wonderful that this baby will be named Lily, because of the influence of the divine Lily of the Valley and her middle name will be “Annette”, which is my own middle name! I am going to love praising Him through the words of this hymn today, and I cannot wait to praise Him when I have this sweet namesake in my arms! Providence is perfect.

Most of all, I am thankful that we—all of my little family who will be gathered in that place to memorialize today—have found a friend in Jesus. He is everything to me! On days like today, we are grateful beyond what we can say that He has influenced our lives and family in eternal proportions and in depths of ways we can’t even express. He IS the fairest of ten thousand to our souls!