In my work position I get to introduce students to various workplaces.
We work together, sharing the experience.
Lately the experience has been at a greenhouse, where we have deadheaded, pruned and attached bug packs to hydrangea plants and rose bushes.
On one day we were working in the greenhouse filled with short and long-stemmed roses. I could not wait to get into that greenhouse! I had driven by numerous times, wondering how delightful it must be in such an lush and warm environment. I had imagined the heady scent of thousands of blossoms, and colors to brighten even a gray, rainy Pacific Northwest day.
What I got were scratched hands.
The thorns were out to get me. They scratched the skin, they poked my flesh, they even left remnants into my epidermis to fester days later (see those bad boys in the photo to the right! Downright nasty!).
The thorns became my focus once I started through the rows of roses, getting scratched and pricked. I was grumbling under my breath, wincing with each sharp contact. Soon I was not considering the plants as roses at all, but just rows of thorns, and enemies as well.
Then, in irritation, I raised my head, to peer above the thorns …
… and everything changed.
The thorns, the scrapes, the scratches, the punctured skin were all forgotten in a vision of beauty, glorious beauty.
Row on row of perfect white roses standing straight and tall, reaching for the heaven, as if that is what they were created to do …
And it hit me, that is what they were created to do … grow up towards the light, the source of energy for the rose.
And that is what we are created to do … grow and increase in energy by focusing on the light created by and through our Creator, Savior.
It is when our eyes drift away from our Creator that the thorns begin to prick and invade our days and our lives. God is the one who lifts our head, and shows us the beauty of the roses, despite a few thorns … and we all have thorns.
“He told me,
“My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness thorn.”
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen.
I quit focusing on the handicap thorn and began appreciating the gift roses.
It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness thorns.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
itsawonderfilledlife 