Writer's note:I know it has been a while since I have written. If you are a veteran reader then first of all I am glad you are still reading, but also, you know how my posts go, so nothing new there. If you are new then, welcome, make yourself comfortable and beware that my writing can be a tad scatter brained at times, but it has a point, I promise. You just have to get to the end! Enjoy--
I have recently started a job with a florist, and therefore
obviously work with a lot of flowers, particularly roses on certain
days. And as some of us know, my brain likes to analyze and compare
things a lot. After being stabbed with one or two thorns I came up
with this sort of irony, I guess you could call it, with one of my
favorite Disney stories “Beauty and the Beast”. The beast has a
mask of harshness and gives off fear simply by his looks, but as
Belle finds out, if you take the time to get past all of that and get
to know the actual person underneath, they usually turn out to be a
caring, loving person. Showing that you can't judge a book by it's
cover. That saying always seems to be used in negative to positive
situations- i.e. You can't judge something because it looks scary,
typically it is actually not scary at all once you get past the
surface. But with roses, it is almost the exact opposite. It is
something that, from the outside, looks pure and beautiful, it is
given to show affection, it is given to show care and love. Now
typically roses from a store are prepared for someone to touch, but
if you were to just grab one from a pile or growing somewhere you
would find that its welcoming nature, its beauty, is a bit deceiving
because the moment you reach for it, you will get stuck with a thorn.
They come in the most unexpected places. Point being, a lot of things
are like roses in that they could look great from the outside but you
may want to be cautious when approaching them because, again, you
can't judge a book by its cover. What I find ironic is how the rose
is used as the timer for the beast. This beautiful object that looks
so welcoming, even Belle gets very close to touching it, is the thing
that, once all the petals fall, will bring about the beast's demise
and he will be stuck in his state of deception just as the rose is.
Things are deceiving, the devil loves to play tricks on us and see us
get hurt, and see us hurt other people. You can never be too careful.
I had a conversation similar to this
topic with a good friend a couple of weeks ago. I argued that things
that seem really cool and great, tend to have at least one thing
about them that disappoint you. Now, I was being, as my friend said,
“fatalistic and pessimistic” and they are probably right. But it
has been my experience in the past few years that anything that seems
pretty fantastic or just really cool, will in some way let you down,
and you may be able to look past it and move past that problem to
continue liking said thing, but the point still stands. One thing,
though, that IS super cool and fantastic is God and his love and
sacrifice for us. THAT will never disappoint. So if you happen to be
going through a slump like I am and you just feel like everything is
going down hill, nothing is going right, and everything seems to be
disappointing you left and right, just remember that God loves us
so much that He sent his only son to give his life for us because
of our sins so that we will be saved from eternal damnation and will
get to live forever with Him in eternity. I hope that with that you will find the joy God has in store for you in life. And for that matter, I hope I do, too.
"Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him." Psalm 126: 5-6
