May 15, 2013 - Touching Thorns

I was awakened this morning to the singing of the sweet birds. They are precious to me. This morning I want to continue with the picture from yesterday concerning my rose bush that's so fragrant. Last evening my husband picked one that had opened to probably a 5 inch width and its color was dark burgundy and black. His comment, "this looks like velvet." It absolutely does. When he presented it to me I bent down and inhaled as long as my lungs could hold on. Fragrant does not describe the scent. I closed my eyes and held that aroma as long as possible and smiled as I thanked God for allowing such beauty to be grown in my yard. The sweetness of this scene soon ended as I prepared for bed and wandered into the kitchen where Terry had placed the magnificent rose in clear vase. (I might also say that the leaves are equally as deep in color and extremely healthy thanks to the rain and cooler temps) As I gazed at the rose, my eyes eventually fell to the water and I peered into the container and connected visually with these enormous thorns. While the color of the rose and leaves made a bold statement, so did these creatures. I stood for a few seconds and wondered, "why on earth would something so beautiful have something so dreadful attached to it." Stay with me, I'm going somewhere. I know there must be a scientific answer to my thoughts, but I was too tired to search for it, so I went to bed and pondered. Have you ever done that? And I felt the Lord began to show me a spiritual picture from this natural one. I have a friend who is diabetic. A couple of years ago, she joined my health journey and took this disease into a place of submission. However, she slowly has allowed the doors of starch and sugar to be re-opened and has found that the monster has returned with a vengeance. Again, she is making a stand for her health and her life and within a few days of hitting the delete button, her blood sugar level dropped over 200 points and she is down 4+ pounds. Here's what I see. No one loves to eat more than I do. Sometimes those meals and fancy cupcakes look beautiful, smell delicious, but right underneath are these monstrous thorns (diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol) that serve as reminders that "beauty has its guard rails." Please hear me - I am not speaking of physical beauty (whatever that means to you) - I am referring to the beauty of being healthy. I imagine God placed those monster thorns as a protector of the queen rose. Maybe, I don't know? But I know this, these obesity-related diseases are thorns in my life set as reminders that eating healthy MUST BE PROTECTED. Maybe this helps you - it was a bold statement to me as I tried to gather the rose and was pricked. Some roses have little thorns and little protection and I will pick them easily. But THIS rose with its magnificence, had the thorns that say, "think again." I want my life to be full, colorful, aromatic, and brilliant, so I place great attention around my health so one of the thorns of disease doesn't intrude, prick me, and draw my attention from the beauty of being healthy. Praying for each of us this day, PK