My roses take continual care to keep them looking how I want them to. I like to train them into standards, that are lifted up above the surrounding ground for other plants to grow beneath them.

    I can’t help thinking how like these rose plants each one of us are! This particular variety of rose is quite hardy, but nevertheless needs constant care to keep it how I want them to be. They need to be tied firmly to a strong stake to keep them from being moved by the wind. In the same way , we must be tied strongly to the stake of Jesus Christ, or else we will just blow from side to side and our spiritual life will maybe get damaged beyond repair. Nor will we be able to be a thing of beauty to those who see us.    I also have to take all the side shoots off the main stem constantly; they come with amazing regularity! How often we need to be trimmed in this way, otherwise the shoots take away from the growth of the main stem. If we allow other things to crowd into our lives, they will eventually take all the vitality out of what the Lord intends us to do for Him….after all, there are only so many hours in our day! We say we can’t do without this or that, but if we are involved with too many other activities, we won’t have the time we should be spending for the Lord.

    I find too, that there are many shoots that come up from the base of the plant as it tries to revert to its natural state of being a bush rather than a standard. If we don’t keep ourselves regularly in the Word of God (the Bible), we find ourselves reverting to our natural inclinations rather than following the Lord as He wants us to. We need to be vigilant in these things.     Another thing is, I look ahead to how I want the finished rose plant to look like. If one shoot looks strong and healthy and is growing out from the main stem in a suitable place, I will tie it upright to the existing main stem, thinking I will let it grow in its new position and then when it is strong enough I will cut off all the other heads when they have finished flowering. Yes, what we are doing now may be useful and being involved in the Lord’s work, but He can see ahead to a better task for us to do, one which will take the main head even higher. It may hurt the plant to have one stem fastened upright in such a fashion, and it may hurt us to be tied in some way that gives us pain and restricts us now, but the end result will enable our character to be a thing of beauty and us to be even more help to those around us.

It’s amazing how many lessons there are to be found in the garden, from weeding, to pruning, to spraying….all these things having to be attended to constantly.  No wonder our Lord said, ” I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.” (John 15:1-8)