Every Rose Has Its Thorns
Machelle McDowell
April 16, 2024
I love flowers! So, today I thought I might incorporate some gardening analogies that may help us to learn a few Biblical concepts: Let’s focus on the Rose!
Roses are so beautiful and they are a perfect lead in to a comical story I want to share with you today:
A teenage granddaughter….we will call her, Rose, came downstairs to meet her date for the night wearing a see-through blouse and no bra! (Stick with me, this is not rated R, I promise).
Her grandmother threw a fit, “Rose, don’t you dare go out like that!”
The rebellious teen looks at her grandma and says, “Loosen up Grams…these are modern times, everybody dresses like this” “You gotta let your rose buds show”……. and out she went.” The grandmother is appalled!
The next day…. Rose comes downstairs only to find her grandmother sitting in her chair with no top on! The teen cannot believe what she is seeing!
In a panic, she explains to her grandmother that she has friends coming over any minute and that it is just not appropriate for her to be seen like that!
With a big smile on her face, the grandmother says, “ Loosen up Sweetie,”
“If you can show off your rosebuds, I can show off my hanging baskets.”
There is some humor in this story but also a garden full of thorns!
There is nothing prettier than a rose bush in full bloom! It captures our attention. But, when we walk amongst the rose bush before it blooms we see its leaves but our eyes tend to drift to the exposed thorns.
We can learn a lot from a rose bush:
Even outnumbered by thorns..the beauty of the flower stands out for all to see..
Our prayer should be that we would be more like the rose and less like the thorns. Jesus was a rose among the thorns. He stood out… why? Because, He values others more than himself.
Jesus wants us to stand out. He wants others to see Him in us.
We can learn from Paul in Romans 12:2- Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good an acceptable and perfect.
You know, when we begin to think like Jesus, we will begin to act like Jesus…. We have bought into this world and have become numb to the things that cause a stench in God’s nostrils. We have tarnished the sweet fragrance of His garden!
The thorns we bare do not bring God glory but disgrace. Like Rose, the granddaughter in the story, our rebellious nature robs us of God’s greatest blessings.
There is a quote that says:
“Anything in fact will serve as an excuse when the heart is bent on compromise.”
“Loosen up Grams!” “These are modern times.” “Everybody does it!”…….The question we should be asking is, “Does this bring God glory?”
Like the rose, Jesus wants us to stand out. He wants us to be different:
Our speech should not sound like the world. Our tongue has the power to destroy or to lift up. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths but that which is good to the use of edifying. Ephesians 4:29.
Our Behavior- Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. I Tim 4:12-13.
Our reflection of Christ- the way we love others reflects our adoration for our Lord. Love God, Love Others. Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is the this: Love your neighbor as yourself.
When our love for others is in full bloom; God is being glorified.
We are not perfect people; we all bare thorns…but even outnumbered by thorns, the beauty of the rose stands out for all to see. Jesus wants to see us in full bloom.
Just like the rose bush, we go through seasons when all you can see is the leaves and the thorns.
When our lives are filled with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, negativity, to name a few; these are seasons when a good pruning is needed. When the thorns have taken over and choked out the beautiful rose.
When is the last time you had a good pruning?
Maybe, you are carrying around unconfessed sin?
Maybe, You are struggling with unforgiveness?
Maybe, You have never given your life to the gardener? Jesus Christ
Why would you call Jesus a gardener? I am glad you asked.
Listen to the definition of a gardener and compare it in your mind to our Lord and Savior:
“The gardener is the person who has the skill to maintain the gardens’s design.
The gardener’s labor during the year include planting flowers and other plants, weeding, pruning, grafting, deadheading, mixing and preparation of insecticides and other products for pest control, and tending garden compost”.
Let me explain my thoughts:
Friends, our Lord and Savior designed us for himself. He is skilled to keep that design.
He plants us where he wants us to grow our faith and share it with others.
We are to share the beautiful bouquet of the gospel and let its fragrance saturate the hearts of the sinner.
God weeds us- He deadheads us so that we can be alive in him and be his disciple, the disciple he designed us to be.
He prepares us for spiritual battles. Who is our pest?- Satan himself. Satan prowls around like a lion seeking whom he can devour. He wants to destroy the garden.
He compost us. Improving the health of our soul, recycling the very Word of God over and over in our hearts and minds: our nutrients to prepare us for the droughts to come.
That my friend is our gardener! Our Lord and Savior!
Maybe, you are just going through a period of dry rot? It’s like you have a spiritual fungus:
It is eating away at your spirit. It is causing decay of your witness.
It sucking the joy out of your Christian walk.
Christians, We are a rose among the thorns! The thorns are part of who we are but they
do not possess us.
The Bible says, we all sin and fall short. But God loved us so much he sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners! And, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead- call upon the Lord and be saved!
The cure for all thorns we have ever had, currently have, or will have in the future have been taken care of!
There is a disease that causes a sudden excessive thorn production on a rose bush; it is called rose rosette. It is a virus with no cure! The plant will die within a year or two.
Friends, we have a cure! His name is Jesus! We cannot cure the thorns in our lives. Only God can!