“ A rose doesn’t last forever unless you paint it on your eternal soul.”
c e hollis
Who doesn’t love roses? I miss my rose bushes in the winter, but thanks to photography I can revisit them. Thanks to the fact that they can be purchased cheaply enough in stores close by, I can enjoy them in plenty during the colder seasons.
Roses are a delight to me. I love the soft petals and the glossy leaves. I love the scents and the colors and even when they are fading or dried I enjoy them still. They are planted in my soul.
I paint them in so I can remember them because of the joy they bring me. They are a blessing. “But the thorns,”some might say.Yes, there are thorns; but turning away from beauty because you might suffer a thorn prick is a losing attitude.
So it is with friendships.
Mine are a varied lot. They grow in my heart like roses in my flowerbeds. Some are one color—some another. Some are young—some older. Some are easy to maintain relationships with and some are harder to tend so they can thrive. Some are bright and strikingly colorful. Some are as gentle and satiny sweet. Some perky and bright. All are beautiful to me.
I love them each as I love each of my seven very-different-from-the-other children. I love them each as I do each of my grandchildren. I love them for their sweet personality traits, their soft spots, their character strengths and their momentary weaknesses. I love them despite their thorns. Life would be sad without each in it.
God loves us that way too. Each of us with our thorns, our weak stems, our diseases and disabilities. Our souls are loved by Him who tends us like tender flowers, who sets us in places of honor as I do a vase of roses on my Sunday dinner table. He made and watched us each grow. He waters us with His words. He watches over us and He smiles when we bloom. He know all our faults and each of our attributes.
He loves us—thorns and all.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not, knows not God for God is love.
By this is the love of God manifested in us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, If God so loved us, we also ought to love each other.
1 John 4 : 7 –11
What’s Good About Home! 
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