More Lessons from my Rose Bush: Beauty Beyond and an Insecure Bloom

My rose bush keeps eliciting more lessons each morning. A second bloom has finally opened up. Such beauty. Additionally, there are 2 more buds grown since the last time I counted—that’s a total of 13 buds, a potential for 13 flowers. The color is so rich, so vibrant. A color I can’t seem to recall on any wild rose.

But even still, I can find myself disappointed. Disappointed now, that only two flowers have bloomed. Shouldn’t there be more by now?  When I look across the street and see my neighbor’s rose bushes, I am left feeling a bit insecure of my how my thorny rose looks.  My neighbor’s rose bushes are bursting with hues of red, hundreds of petals from across the way. It’s really a sight to see in a landscape painted in tones of green.

But is this an appropriate response? Only days ago was I elated about finally, after 5 laborious years, having any buds at all, let alone flowers!  How could I go from delighted to discouraged in a matter of minutes?

There is nothing inherently better about the roses across the street. Both are roses. Both are bushes doing what they are intended to do. Both are beautiful. Both have a pleasing aroma. Both are producing.

Yet one more than the other, but this shouldn’t surprise me. My neighbor’s roses are pruned seasonally, get more sun, and do not exist as a solo bush. The roses across the street have the companionship of other bushes planted near by for climbing support. So of course they have more roses!

And so in the Christian life, once we have seen the fruit in our faith, we start to compare our progress, our disciplines, our time, our fruit, our faith with our neighbor’s. How often are we left feeling insecure because the quantity of our fruit doesn't match others? We know this isn’t right—insecurity is simply a forgotten identity and distrust in the Master Gardener who causes all growth.

The truth is that my rose has two flowers, and many more to blossom. That’s more beauty to behold than we have ever seen in this yard. That’s a cause for celebration. My rose bush must produce 1 blossom before it can produce 100.

So hear this sisters...

We can look at the Rose Bush across the street, with contentment—we have roses!, and with encouragement to grow more in discipline, to continue pruning what doesn’t produce, to fertilize with the truth of God’s word, and to look more fully into the warmth of the Son. We can gaze and appreciate other's beauty without diminishing the loveliness in what God has done in our thorny, rose bush of hearts.

So gaze on. Look at the Roses beyond, and in a way, we can see what we are supposed to look like, what the Gardener will produce in the days to come.