The Rosebushes

For fifteen weeks, as I walked to my early morning class, I'd pass by nearly a hundred different rosebushes. Most days I’d pick a rosebud to put in my hair. These roses were magnificent. Each one had a unique fragrance; from mild and sweet to spicy and perfumed. They were indeed extraordinary and each shared a common factor. As the day wore on and the rose opened, the fragrance would intensify. As the rose was actually dying, it would give off its strongest aroma that would permeate the air.

Now the garden rose differs greatly from the store-bought variety. Roses from a store are usually smaller and rarely emit much of a scent. When handling such roses, I would find many stems that were considered to be “bullets.” The bullets were small, closed tightly and most assuredly would not open, but rather die from the inside out. These bullets were automatically discarded.

There is a point to this. I often think of Jesus as being the “Master Gardener.” We can look at ourselves as His roses. We are all different, yet unified because we are adopted into God’s family, and therefore loved equally. When we sin and behave in a manner that is displeasing to God, He will not randomly discard us like worthless bullet roses. On the contrary, he waits and longs for us to turn to Him with repentant hearts and lives.

On one brisk winter morning, I arrived to find that all of the bushes had been cut back to mere stumps that resembled a vast graveyard of rosebushes. It reminded me that we are to be pruned. Pruning can sometimes (okay, most of the time) be painful and oftentimes it is a long process, but it is necessary. It is necessary for us to be fruitful, to live lives worthy of the calling and to continually learn what it means to die to self. We must put aside our own selfish ambitions and desires and to be able to trust in God’s ability to completely and utterly transform us when we wholeheartedly surrender and submit to His authority. Moreover, when we die to ourselves and live for Christ, then our lives will truly be a fragrant reminder to those around us of God’s redeeming love intended for all people.

Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering (a spiritual act of worship) Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, and develops well-formed maturity in you.

May we willingly hand Jesus the pruning shears.