I love roses. But I don’t want to devote the necessary time to nourish them and keep them healthy. You’d think that since they’re my favorite flowers that I’d want to tend to them so I could clip some and bring their beauty and fragrance inside. Maybe someday I’ll give them some time and attention. For now, though, I’ll admire the roses in other people’s yards and smell their wonderful wafting fragrance as I pass by.
A couple of years ago I discovered Knock Out Shrub Roses that I’d seen in our area that seem to bloom without much ado. They don’t have layers of unfolding petals, and they’re not as elegant as the roses I really love, but I decided I could give a wee bit of time and attention to them. We bought two bushes and planted them by the picket fence in the front yard. All I have to do to them is deadhead every now and then. Takes maybe fifteen minutes. I'm wanting to get some more to put out back for a pleasant view from my sewing room.
As I think about my attitude toward roses, I don’t want my love for God’s Word to be like my love for roses—admiring the growth of beautiful blooms that other people have, but not giving much time and attention to it myself. I don’t want to be satisfied with a life of shrub roses. Yes, I sort of grow roses, but there are those that are more lovely, more fragrant, more excellent. Those are the ones that have been nurtured. Those are the ones with the sweet aroma. Those are the ones with true value.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
