Rose Bushes

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”- Abraham Lincoln

I never really liked roses. I never really understood why but I always knew.

When my husband and I started dating I asked him to never send me flowers. They just didn't mean to me what they meant to most girls. I'd prefer a box of chocolates thank you very much. So years went on like that. I never questions my discomfort with roses. They just annoyed me.

Recently we moved into a new home. A very pretty spanish style home that was cared by a lovely lady who loved roses. (of course) The entire front yard was riddled with roses bushes. Every color and all kinds! (I never even realized there were different kinds) I was annoyed by this view of my porch. So one day I decided to cut them down in preparation for a nice green lawn. I took shears and started cutting away.

A few bags later my husband walked by. I asked him what the point of such pretty things with such thorns!? It's then it all came to me. I rarely have moments where things hit me all at once but this was one of the rare few. I recalled going to buy flowers as a little girl with my Dad. Always believing they were for my mom and I but somehow they never made it home to us. He would say he never actually bought them or that they died in the car from sunlight. In this far memory I found the root of my distaste for roses. What flowers were meant to represent in our society as love and friendship actually represented betrayel and the feeling of not being "enough" for a man I loved.

There it was. So little. So simple. So sad. I finally realized that it was never about the roses but something the enemy had planted within me so many years ago. As I continued to cut these bushes that morning I said a simple prayer. "God, as I cut these out physically help me cut it out spiritually from where the roots grow. May no one ever plant what is not of you within my me. Give me the sight to pull it out not only of myself but of others around me!"

Funny thing.... a few weeks later I walked onto the porch to enjoy my coffee and saw that every single rose bush had regrown. Oh, but not just regrown but grown anew! Taller, fuller and brighter than before. So many little rose buds staring right at me! What????

I started reading articles on rose bushes and came to find out that "You could never prune a rose bush in a wrong way." Why? Because it would simply outgrow the incorrect pruning and grow anyways!

It's simply beautiful how God will never allow his children to be pruned incorrectly and will always correct the mistakes and continue to grow us!

So again I quote:

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”- Abraham Lincoln