By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

If I asked you to name your favorite flower, many of you would respond with “rose”.  I’ve always loved roses, and although I don’t have many, I do enjoy the rose bushes we have around our house.  You are looking at one of them here.  

It’s hard to explain why it’s my favorite flower.  “Nanny,” my Dad’s mother, cherished her many rose bushes that ran along the side yard between her house and the woods.  My father-in-law, the bear-sized manly-man, had the red roses as his favorite, and we continue to place some on his grave from time to time.  My wife and I spent some time on our honeymoon lots of years ago walking through the hundreds of rose bushes in Mobile, Alabama’s Bellingrath Gardens.  There’s just something about the rose.

New Testament Scripture never actually refers to Jesus as the Rose of Sharon, although man has used that terminology.  The rose is thought of as the most “perfect” of all flowers.  That certainly is an accurate description of Jesus.  And the rose itself represents God at work in whatever situation the roses appear.

I like that.  I see roses blooming in my yard, and I see God at work.  And I surely know it’s a play on words and not the same definition, but Jesus ‘rose’ on the third day as well!  There is definitely something special about the rose!

My very simple prayer for you this week is that you will see rose.  Yes, fall is almost upon us and there aren’t too many blooms left in the yard, so look for the rose in the lives of those around you.  And, see God at work in your situation.  Stop and smell the roses.

Just a thought.