A couple years ago at a Mother Daughter banquet hosted by the church where I grew up, we were told to choose a potted plant to take with us before we left. There were several little pots of beautiful flowers. But, my daughter chose the sickliest miniature rose among them.
The rose looked as if it was already dead with just a couple faded blooms hanging on for dear life. The stem looked brown.
I tried to steer her toward another plant, but she insisted on this one!
We brought it home that year, and she began to nurse it back to health. I will be honest and say that I was not holding out much hope for this little potted plant.
That year, our life began to fall apart with one tragic loss after another.
As our lives were unraveling, and plummeting to despair, an interesting things happened. And, it would be a reminder that we have hope especially in the depths of gloom.
With the first tragedy, I arrived home to see that this plant had started to bloom. In spite of the fact that it was already looking dead, in the face of our loss this plant was flourishing.
As encouraging as that was, the blooms eventually fell off and the plant looked sickly again.
Then, another tragic event occurred in our lives. I noticed at that very moment, this little plant was thriving again.
As, another sad happening occurred, the plant held to its hope-giving ritual.
There would always be beautiful, lively, thriving blooms bursting forth when we were at the pit of discouragement and despair.
...This little miniature rose taught me a very valuable lesson. It taught me that even when things look hopeless, there is hope! There is hope in a savior we know as Jesus Christ. This Jesus came to earth, lived, ministered to people, was killed on a cross.....
Then, when all looked hopeless to his followers, HE AROSE from the grave.... from the hopeless, grave and depth of despair - to give us hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment