Day 101 First Rose of Spring

This is my first rose of the season. It’s a good time of year to be a rose. The enemies of the roses have not yet invaded the garden. Aphids, Japanese beetles and black spot will soon be levying their attacks on my beautiful roses. Then I will fight for them as I do every summer.

This rose is named Love and Peace. What a beautiful name for a flower. I chose this one for its intoxicating fragrance and also for its beauty. It is a lovely pale yellow on the inside with deep reds around the edges.

Mom always loved roses but she hated to watch them struggle in the summer. One of her favorite photos I took was of the yellow Graham Thomas roses in her blue and white teapot. I made cards for her with that photo. Tending my garden will always remind me of my parents. They both loved to feel the earth in their hands.

My parents divorced when I was 7. I loved both of them dearly and I have no idea what it would have been like to grow up with them together. It is painful to be a child of divorce, but God has been kind to me.  With his help I have made a family of my own. He has redeemed the years of my pain by giving me a new life where love and peace can grow.

The fragrance of this redemption now encircles the lives of my children. They will not know the same sadnessI knew.

Both my parents are now with the Lord. I know this with certainty in my heart. They are free from the emotional and physical pain of this life. I am grateful I will see them again in complete wholeness. This is such a happy thought. There is only a thin veil separating this finite life from eternity as we live in hope of the promises of God.

In heaven there will not be any divorce or pain. There will not be the blight of summer to steal the beauty of spring. There be will love, laughter, wholeness and joy in the presence of our God.

Glory.

Revelation 2:14 ~”‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”