I have finally got on top of weeding my garden!  There are many lessons to be learned from our garden, especially if we go in for different things. Take the bearded iris flowers for instance…they die down in the winter and look miserable specimens, but there is untold beauty tied up in those half dead looking plants…we just can’t see it all the time. So it is with some people, they don’t present a very good appearance a lot of the time, but when trouble arises, they are the first there to offer help and comfort.

    I had one red carpet rose to start with….these are quite different to the ordinary roses, in that they have a compact type of growth, and are very hardy. They are also very easy to take cuttings from, so over the years I have planted a whole row of these roses down one border. If they are left to themselves, they grow into a very large bushy plant, almost rampant in habit. But I decided to make them into standards, and this is where I got my lessons from.

     I take a cutting in the autumn time when the rains of winter will come, and put the cutting in the ground. As it takes root, and begins to grow, then the training begins. This reminds me of how we are to train our children up, right from the time they are born, in the ways of the Lord. The Bible says to train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will come back to it. It doesn’t say anything about the middle years, and that is often when our families can cause us grief by wandering away from the things they were taught. But the trials of life will often bring them back to the Lord’s   ways that they learned when young.

     So my small rose cutting is planted out where it is meant to be.  The first strong looking shoot will be tied up to a strong stake, and all the other side shoots will be cut off. Now this isn’t pleasant for our little plant, and as we grow in the ways of the Lord, there will often be disappointments and trials that come our way, and none of these are pleasant, but as we lean on Him, He will support us in the ways we are to go. We have to be single minded in our aims, and learn to look upwards, in the same way that  the little plant grows straight against its stake.

     As it continues to grow, the side shoots are cut off (again not pleasant!) and then it will send out its buds and begin to flower. But it often sends out other large vigorous side shoots which will spoil its shape if left, and again, these are cut off. Sometimes in life, we get sidetracked by other activities that take our focus off the things of God, and take all our spare time. These things are not necessarily bad in themselves, but we have to be careful not  to let them take over  the time we should be giving to the things of God. So it is better to cut them off, rather than let them take over.

     So our rose begins to flower, and the flowers last a long time. The flowers are not big and showy like the other sorts of roses, but they don’t fade in a hurry, and I find that the flowering season lasts nearly nine months.

     But the rose never gives up, and it is a continual job to keep the shoots from the base from growing….this reminds me of how the fleshly side of our nature never gives up on us either. As long as we live, we will be plagued by things such as gossip, maybe bad temper, impatience, and lack of love for others, even laziness in the things of God such as our Bible reading and prayer times.  So whenever these things attack us, just remember the rose, and how when it is pruned, it will grow just how the Gardener envisaged, and will bear fruit, or in this case, flowers. It is a thing of joy to the Gardener, even though it has represented a lot of work. We are told in Isaiah 53 verse 11, that the Lord will see of the travail of His soul and will be satisfied. It boggles the mind to think that we can bring joy to the heart of our Great Creator by growing as He wants us to. So let’s get into gear, and  follow His ways, always remembering the little red standard rose!