fresh flowers for April 15

The Mystery of a Rose

©2005, Lani Wiens

a fresh flowers original

My husband gave me a rose bud the other day to celebrate the discovery of another baby on the way. It was a tiny bud, very tightly closed, the tiny thing didn’t look like it would amount to much. V e r y s l o w l y it began to open and now remains small but absolutely beautiful, fully open.

This little rose reminded me of how our lives and dreams unfold. God plants a tiny seed, doesn’t look like much at all, sometimes we wonder if anything will develop. Then, petal by petal these deposits He’s made began to open before our eyes. No matter how open a rose appears if you look into the heart of it there seems to be just a little more. The mystery of what lies at the very heart of a rose belongs to God just as what lies in the very heart of each individual is known only by Him.

Our lives are a mystery even to us. We don’t know yet what all God has in store for us. We are not aware of the beauty yet to be revealed. It is the same with our children and the individuals around us. We get to water and watch as things open up. Forcing a rose to open doesn’t do any good. You just wreck the rose. My prayer of late is that I will have the grace to provide an environment where my little roses will open up with nurture and care, that I won’t wreck them.

You and I are roses, too, in God’s garden. We must practice patience as we wait for our own petals to open up and reveal the next layer. God has placed so much beauty in each one of us it’s hard to grasp, each of us is a mystery, each of us has a rose in our heart.