The Mystery and Message of the Moss Rose

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40: 28-31 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13  

My mom was a talented florist and gardener. I spent many an hour watching her “green thumb” work its “magic” in our family’s flower shop and her gardens at home. As I was growing up, I learned to appreciate and love flowers by watching her plant, and tenderly care for, a large variety of colorful annuals and perennials she nurtured each cool spring and hot summer. I, too, love to plant flowers each spring but I find I’m not as nurturing as my mom, especially as the summer grows hotter and hotter. So, I look for annuals and perennials that don’t require much attention and can thrive through our hot, and sometimes, very dry Nebraska summers.  One of my favorite annuals to plant, with these qualities, is moss rose.

Last May, I found some beautiful moss rose and planted them in the sunniest parts of our front yard. As usual, and in the extreme heat and drought of the summer, they flourished.  Not only did these plants flourish, several seeds mysteriously found their way to a crack in the hot cement of our driveway. Even in this inhospitable hot and arid place of the cement, they kept growing and growing and reaching their bright and beautiful heads to the summer sun. To me, they took on a quality of defiance, that against all odds, they were going to survive. As I watched these plants continue to grow until the first frost, I suddenly was struck by the message God was sharing with me through them. Their tenacity told me that, even in the hardest and driest times of my life, if I keep my focus on the Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior, and on God, the source of all my strength, I can, and will, continue to thrive and flourish, as well.

The following summer, in that same crack in our driveway, two moss rose plants once again thrived and flourished in the hot, summer sun even though no new plants were added to our yard that previous spring. The mystery and message of the moss rose continued.

Prayer: My Savior and my God, the source of all my strength, I praise and thank you for the messages you send to me each and every day in a variety of ways. May my eyes, ears, mind, heart and soul continually be watchful of, and open to, the mysteries, messages and revelations of Your Word in my life.  Amen

Patty Niemann (reprinted from June 2013)