I have recently been trimming up my small rose plants which I have grown from cuttings. Most of them are doing well and have started to flower, making a cheerful splash of colour in the garden. But I want more than that from them….I want them to grow taller with a strong head on them so they stand up instead of sprawling all over the ground as they would if left alone. So I have to keep taking off the lower side shoots, and if there is a very strong shoot near the top, I tie it up to the stake to train it to be the main stem for the new head. As I have been doing this, I think of the parallels in our Christian life. If I’m left to my own ways, I will grow close to the ground and sprawl all over it just becoming a tangled mess. So the Master Gardener has to keep taking off those bad habits and selfish desires to keep us growing low to the ground. We need to have the painful experiences of life to make us look up into His face, and ask what He wants from us. This is how we will grow tall and straight with a strong head of flowers on us to give pleasure to all those around us. I suppose taking the shoots off the roses causes them pain, and many of the experiences we go through are painful and not what we would choose, but the end result is worth all the pain as we are able to comfort those who go through times of sorrow and doubt. We too need to be firmly tied to our stake of the Lord Himself to keep us firm and solid in His things or else we will wobble around not really sure of what we believe, and end up with broken off branches as the storms come through as they will.

So the next time you are tempted to ask “Why?” when things go wrong, just think of the young rose plants that need to be tied up and trimmed off , and remember to look up to the One Who loves us beyond compare!