MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS
“I AM THE ROSE OF SHARON, THE LILY OF THE VALLEY”
Song of Songs 2:1
Spring came loudly this year in Nola from the snowy winter we had. It caught me by surprise when it seemed every budding plant burst its banks with color shouting winter had past. MY ROSES! I just couldn’t get enough of them. Last year I was introduced to PeggyMartin roses named from the roses that survived 20 feet of water during Katrina. Having not too much success with other roses I planted these. They came back in vengeance from the winter we had in the most pretty pink I’ve ever seen spreading along my fence at a feverish rate. I couldn’t wait to buy more to plant them in my yard. Christ comes as the rose and the lily. There is just something to see in Christ. He has beauty that seems to cleanse deep on the inside of us.
For over ten years now Marysong has been operating for women that have lost their way. The stories go untold, their scars bury deep within their souls. Mankind weaves it’s wickedness into the very earth we live and the story keeps getting repeated. The girls’ eyes always speak so much louder than their voice. I thank God Christ comes as the rose. Yes, he is our bread and he is our drink but I thank God he is our rose.
Spurgeon says, “Christ compares himself here, not as in other places to needful bread and refreshing water, but to lovely flowers- to roses and lilies. What is the use of roses and lilies? They are of no use at all except for joy and delight. With their sweet form, their charming color, and their delicious fragrance, we are comforted and pleased and delighted; but they are not necessities of life. Jesus is all that, and more; he is far more than “a thing of beauty,” and to all who trust him he will be “a joy forever.” To you who are Christ’s people, he is your bread, for you feed on him, and he makes you live; you could not do without him as the sustenance of your soul. He is the living water, and your soul would pine and perish of a burning thirst if you did not drink of him. He means for you to have joy as well as to have life, to look upon beauty as well as to be in safety, and to have not only a healthy atmosphere, but an atmosphere that is laden with the odor of sweet flowers. You are to find in Christ roses and lilies, as well as bread and water; you have not yet seen all his beauties, and you do not yet know all his excellence.”
Let Christ come to you as the rose that will drench your sorrow with his fragrance, your scars with his beauty, and the black with his lily. There is beauty in the brokenness.
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