Everything's Coming Up Roses

I love roses.

I love to cut them from our back yard and place them in tiny vases around the house.

They make me smile.

These roses blossomed up out of stumps of former bushes that were pruned back because they had gotten out-of-control-big.

I was sad to hear that in effort to clean out the flower beds and re-plant with something more manageable, Handsome Hubby had pruned our rose bushes back to stumps. But, deep down I knew I didn't have time to take care of them right now anyway. I thought they were gone for good.

Then, Darling Daughter and I went for a stroll in our back yard and found these pink and red roses stretched up toward the sun as if they were singing praises.

In pondering our creator and His creation this morning, I came across this verse in Isaiah:

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. - Isaiah 35:1

A commentary I read suggests that the kingdom of Christ is the great subject intended in this passege. His grace can take a soul that was a wilderness and make it sing and rejoice and blossom...much like the roses in our back yard.