Well the rose bush didn't do too well. It got mowed down a couple of times before it could blossom. Our winters are cold and it is hard for things to survive. This rose is about eight feet from the highway and the winter snow and salt and gravel gets kind of dumped on it so this is not conducive to helping it grow.

This rose bush was stubborn so after several years it reached the stage where it produced one rose. It only reached about one foot high but every year after that we would get one rose before winter would claim it again.

Last year my brother brought me a load of manure so I put a shovel of manure on the rose bush, it did wonders. The bush grew taller and had one rose on it!

This year the bush grew taller it is now about eighteen inches tall and so far we have taken two roses off the bush and it looks like it will produce several more.

This bush is a prickly old thing small as it is it has stabbed me several times and I think Pauline has been stabbed a couple of times also. Just at the time that it is ready to open Pauline cuts it down about six or eight inches and brings it in the house and puts it in a vase with water. I love to watch it open, day by day. First the outside pedals start to open and then day by day more and more rows of pedals open and the bigger it gets and the more beautiful it becomes.

As I was considering this the other day I realized this is how much of God's kingdom works. It starts as a seed, then grows and struggles to develop; its not very much to look at to begin with, but turns into something beautiful at the end.

I remember a friend I met several years ago who has now died but he is not forgotten. This man had a very serious drinking problem. He began to come to some of the Christian meetings. He said the sinners prayer and asked Jesus Christ into his heart. I noticed that every time there was an alter call he always went forward to give his heart to the Lord. He did this for a long time and then one night he came back from the altar call and said, "I don't need to do that anymore, I am now convinced that Christ is in my heart and that He will never leave me. He was a beautiful man! God made him to blossom.

We were sitting in a restaurant one day and a few tables from us was this very decrepit looking young man that looked like he was on drugs or something. This man spoke up and said "Isn't he a beautiful young man." I thought to myself he doesn't look very beautiful to me.

This man was seeing something in this young man that I could not see. He was seeing the rose not the bush or the seed or the prickers or the ground that it was planted in. What a precious gift to be able to see the rose before it comes.

I quess that is what God could see when He sent His Son to die for us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

He thinks we are of great value. What do you think?

I also think of the fact that we are all planted in different kinds of soil. Some more fertile then others. Some of us get a better start. It seems that all of us need a little fertilizer now and then. A big forkful of manure sure helps things along. We also need a little rain now and then and it seems like we all have a winter season now and then.

Sometimes we might think I will never be beautiful, I will never blossom. I am to prickly, I am in bad soil, there is nothing beautiful in me.

Wrong! God has put something beautiful in every one of us. There is a blossom waiting to open. At the right time and the right season it will happen

My prayer to the Lord is that you will be able to see the blossom in others and also within yourself. Amen!