My Roses

I love the roses in my backyard. They are breathtaking and splendid, plentiful to the point of filling my backyard with a sweet rose petal aroma. I love it. When I am out back tending to my pitiful seedlings that I have planted, I see my roses and think, at least I have those.

Yesterday I was walking through my backyard, planting some cabbage in containers (gardening is a faith act for me!), and thinking about the free gift of those roses. I didn’t plant them, I moved into a house that already had at least 15 rose bushes that have been well maintained over the years. They are the biggest rose bushes I’ve ever seen in my life. It got me thinking about the sowing and reaping concept that we see in scripture. I think about it a lot, particularly because I consistently get words that my family and I will see some fruits from our sowing. It takes patience, and has been a constant process of testing our faith and hope. Even as I was sowing my seeds for the garden, I was gleeful at all the spiritual symbolic issues that just poke a believer in the eye when they’re gardening. It’s just life! Sowing and reaping is a fun concept. But when my seeds didn’t come up the first time, I was bummed to say the least. Then I over planted a second time and watched as my plants didn’t get very strong because they were fighting for root space, and I ended up having to sacrifice a couple for the good of the strongest seedling, which was still sort of weak looking. I bought some fertilizer and managed to transplant the strong seedlings into a bigger home. I am praying that I will indeed reap what I sow in my garden, and in my life.

(My seedlings, fighting for life!)

Yesterday as I worked in my garden I was struck by the roses, and I realized that the most beautiful things in my life were actually not things from which I had sown for, but gifts that have been freely given to me. It reminded me of a dream I had the other night. I was at this sort of plantation, or huge farm that was shared by a community. When I showed up and started meeting people, these young girls were harvesting from a garden. I was so impressed by the size of the vegetables, and begin to complement them. So they simply said, “Here, you can have some.” There I was with a  small wooden wheel barrel and these girls began to fill it up to the brim with the biggest squash and pumpkins that I had ever seen. The dream had a really interesting twist at the end that I don’t want to go into, but I remembered this dream as I was standing by my roses. I was thinking about how good my God is to me, and how He loves all of us so much, He literally gives His children a harvest that we haven’t fully earned. I was trying to think of a Biblical reference for my mini-revelation here, and it took some time. I could definitely think of plenty of reaping and sowing messages, but none for my idea that God gives freely. Then I remembered the ultimate message of the New Testament just happens to be about the gift of Jesus, a free gift that none of us can earn. Sowing and reaping is a true principle on earth, very give and take. But when you take this principle and insert it into the Kingdom, we are dealing with a God that multiplies. Our efforts are not for naught. If we do nothing but confess the name of Jesus, we receive a harvest. We come into a garden, and even with no prior experience, are given the best He has to offer. I battle my will to trust God abandoned to logic, and yet, He trusts me. It’s the beauty of the gospel. Who can come before this sort of love and not fully be given over to it? I have never cared for roses before, in fact, I don’t even know where to start when it comes to watering and pruning, and He gave them to me anyway. It feels me with such passion for this art of gardening that I’ve never even experienced before, simply because I want to steward my gift. Not because He tells me to, but because it’s too beautiful to let slip away.

I love the things that turn up when I sow in faith. I look forward to the fruition of these many items of focus I’ve had over the years. I get excited especially when I realize that it’s not just me, that all of these actions and requests float upward towards the throne of grace where God touches them with His very hand, or breathes life over them. It’s like, we can’t help but to prosper in all that we do, whether we’re giving or receiving. So step out in faith, sow towards something impossible and see what hope in an extravagant God can do for you. If you’re like me, in a place where your “seedlings” look a little wispy, tread on over to where the roses are and see what else God is doing in your life. The bountiful harvest of a life not lived in vain, but one with purpose and beauty, lived out before and alongside a Father who is passionately in love with His child. Take some time to “smell the roses,” as the old saying goes. The free gifts in our lives are simply the fragrance of His love, and the testimony of His favor.