Roses In Bloom

Summer has just arrived and none too soon.   It has been a long wait made even longer for me by rose buds tightly closed and refusing to open.   It had been nothing but green buds with aphids and fungus and with my patience running thin as I waited for the beauty of pink rose clusters lining my driveway on bushes I’ve babied for many years.   Finally, with the help of a little spray, water, and fertilizer, I’ve got an ocean of sweet-smelling flowers. 

All those buds spending weeks in a sleep-like mode with nothing visibly happening reminded me of how most of us spend much of our lives the same way.  We appear dormant and plain, but with much happening within – inside the bud, so to speak, where we all reside until something makes us bloom to reveal the beauty we all possess, but many of us refuse to recognize and reveal.

We all have it.  We all have the ability to transform by opening our closed hearts to love and by allowing ourselves to be loved.   It happens through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit within us all that lets our true and bright colors be seen.  That’s what love creates.  That’s what God insists we reveal – beautiful, internal, floribunda landscapes.

The great thing about roses is when a bloom begins to fade, just cut it back and another will grow and bloom in its place.  We should all face life the same way – with optimism and faith that our God will restore our color when daily struggles and heartaches make us fade and when our love needs a reboot.  

The expression “beauty is only skin-deep” describes us all because we are all buds just waiting to burst to reveal our real beauty from deep within.  God provides the spray, water, and fertilizer needed to make it all happen.  And, it’s the light of the Son that keeps us blooming, sweet-smelling, and loving.

Deacon David Pierce