12/21/09

For this to have been my first official day of vacation, it surely was a crazy one! Hopefully tomorrow will be a little less hectic. :)

I took this picture at Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC on our way back home yesterday. Since coming across the song "Rose of Bethlehem" I shared on here a week or so ago, I have begun to "chew" on the rose a bit more. One of the series of books I am reading has dealt with "The Secret of the Rose" and has delved into some spiritual truths along the way of every day thoughts on the growing of roses.


As I have pondered this and thought of what I have learned through those books as well as what I have learned through the Lord revealing things to me through His Word, I am seeing the rose in a whole new light. Please humor me as I go through this metaphor of the rose.

I see the rose as something that is beautiful yet so fragile. It has beauty but there are the thorns that can cause a lot of pain.

So is our life in that manner. God has made us in His image... we are beautiful, but we have those "thorns" in life that cause pain and make us fragile. The thorns cause us heartache.... cause our "hearts" to bleed. Yet, the rose continues to bloom and grow.

The petals and "folds" of the rose are able to grow because of those thorns. Those thorns protect the bloom from being taken from the vine too soon and not able to grow to its potential. The thorns can be seen as God's protection and growing times that come to us in life.

Ever thought of the thorns that way? I hadn't until today.

As each petal "awakens" a new depth enters into the beauty of the rose. Each new fold of the rose is one more opening of our hearts to God's will and not our own. Left to our own devices we would probably stay a rose bud and not bloom to our fullest. The stem, with its thorns attached, is connected to the root, the life of the bloom. It causes the bloom to open up in the midst of those thorns and become something that bursts forth in beauty of its Creator.

I can look back and see plenty of those "thorns" in my life. The Lord uses those thorns, not as something to hurt us, but something to protect us and help us to grow into what He wants us to be.... that beautiful rose unfolding with a fragrance that flows along the air and reaches the senses of those around us.

What a way to share with many the loving scent of our Heavenly Father Who cares so much for you and me that He was willing to send His Son so that one day He would wear those thorns for us. Once again, THIS is why He came.

"Born to glorify the Father, born to wear the thorns for me....."
O Come, let us adore Him!