BUCKETFULS OF ROSES

Things are going from bad to worse, Lord, and I think I know why, I thought as I pulled my sunglasses over my eyes and stuffed my hands as far as possible into my pockets. I must have done something really wrong, because I don’t think You love me anymore!

Yes, I do, a voice sounded in my heart.
No, I don’t think so.
But I do.
Prove it!
All right. What would you like?

The road I was driving on was dry, noisy, and dusty. What was I unlikely to find?
If You show me a red rose, then I will know that You still love me.

Just one? I thought I heard Him laugh. For you, I would give a bucketful of roses!
As I thought about it later, I realized how foolish my request had been. God doesn’t have to prove His love; it’s there whether we realize it or not.

That afternoon, I met a friend at her office. While we chatted over coffee, my mind was elsewhere. I had told God that He need not hold me to my word, because I knew that He loved me and would always care for me; but deep down, I still really wanted to see that “proof.” When our conversation came to an end, I got up to leave, and then I saw it: a small clay vase on the corner of the desk held an odd little arrangement of a handful of ferns … and one red rose!

My heart rejoiced. Thank You, Jesus!

Don’t thank Me just yet!I seemed to hear Him say. I had something to show you at the corner of the road as you entered your friend’s office—only, you were too busy to see it. Take a look around.

I stepped out of the building and the first thing that caught my eye was not one, but four buckets full of red roses smiling at me! And besides that, there were shelves of single red roses behind. It was a florist’s shop.

On any other day, this sequence of events might have just been a coincidence; but on this occasion, the unexpected appearance of all those roses—coming on the heels of my earlier conversation with God—helped reassure me that He cares about me personally and His love will never fail. He made me and you, and He is also going to make something wonderful out of our lives.

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John 13:34-35 ESV / A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Psalm 91:14-16 ESV / “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

John 1:3-5 ESV / All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.