Roses
are in abundance almost like weeds in St. George this time
of year. Since I have at least 14
bushes in my yard, I enjoy making them into beautiful
arrangements to enjoy inside.
Yesterday
as I stood at the kitchen sink preparing roses for a
bouquet, I pricked my fingers more than once on the sharp
thorns. These gorgeous flowers look and smell like
heaven...... but those thorns must have come from some
place else! I wondered why God would
give us something so wonderful and then add those annoying
thorns.
I
think about Jesus, the Rose of Sharon, and the sharp
thorns in the crown they placed on His head just before He
died on the cross for my sins. Perhaps
that is why God added them, to remind me of what He went
through.
I
criss cross tape across a wide shallow bowl to make a
grid. I place sunshine yellow roses,
apricot colored ones with burgundy blush tips and a few
burgundy colored ones through the grid. They
make a full and stunning bouquet! How I
wish my beautiful arrangement would last for a long time
so I could continue to enjoy its beauty for days to come. Sadly
I know that its beauty will soon fade and I begin to sing
quietly in my mind the words to a familiar song:
I
am going to a city where the streets with gold are laid
Where
the tree of life is blooming
And
the roses never fade.
Here
they bloom but for a season
Soon
their beauty is decayed
I
am going to a city where the roses never fade.
...As it is written: “
Eye has not seen, nor ear
heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love
Him.”
(1
Corinthians 2:9)
If
roses are this lovely and smell so sweet, how beautiful
Heaven must be!
