Soon my roses will be blooming! Every year, I grab my Minolta 35 mm camera and start shooting. The pictures are nearly the same! Why do I feel such an incessant need to keep photographing the same flowers? Perhaps because they are so beautiful and I just want to capture and keep the memory.
Roses certainly are beautiful flowers and the fragrant ones are delightfully fragrant! Some might say that they are one of the most desirable flowers. Lovers throughout the ages have sent roses to their beloved, so they are at least a symbol of love and devotion.
In Morning and Evening by Spurgeon, the writing for May 1st evening is as follows....
"Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world in tenfold degree. Among flowers the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of the earth. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends all. "I am the rose of Sharon." This was the best and rarest of roses. Jesus is not "the rose" alone, He is " the rose of Sharon." just as He calls His righteousness "gold", and then adds, "the gold of Ophir" - the best of the best! He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest. There is variety in His charms. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing: so each of the senses of the soul, whether it be the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus. Even the recollection of His love is sweet. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay by the leaves in the jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterward, filling the house with perfume. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, it will still be content with Christ, nay, it will be better able to appreciate Him. Heaven itself possesses nothing that excels the rose of Sharon. What emblem can fully set forth His beauty? Human speech and earth-born things fail to tell of Him. Earth's choicest charms commingled feebly picture His abounding preciousness. Blessed rose, bloom in my heart for ever!"
Wonderful words written by Spurgeon!! They paint a lovely picture of Jesus Christ! But, do I live it? Is He truly the rose that blooms in my heart? Does His fragrance fill my life? When others look at me, do they see Christ reflected in my life? True beauty is the beauty that radiates from within. True beauty should be characteristic of all who are children of the Heavenly King because Jesus, the Rose of Sharon lives within them. My prayer is that of David as written in Psalm 63..... (NASB)
1O God,You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.
3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
4So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
5My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.
6When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches,
7For You have been my help,
And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.
8My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.
9But those who seek my life to destroy it,
Will go into the depths of the earth.
10They will be delivered over to the power of the sword;
They will be a prey for foxes.
11But the king will rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him will glory,
For the mouths of those who speak lies will be stopped.
The next time you view a rose, stop for a minute and think about THE ROSE... the ONE who is more lovely than the loveliest thing you've ever set your eyes on. Think of what He has done for you! Think of what He offers you! A beautiful hymn that is one of many of my favorites is written below..... (words written by Kate Wilkinson)
May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.
May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.
May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self abasing,
This is victory.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
~Ruth
No comments:
Post a Comment