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Excerpts

I Can Think of No Better Flower to Represent Love than the Rose.

All the images in this book come from the 201 roses that are found in my own garden. No plant seems to be as reliant upon human time, effort, and attention. As with the love in any relationship, good gardeners don't just have a few roses growing in a plot of ground, they have a working relationship with the roses. They study and learn what each rose requires and come to realize the roses are dependent on the gardener to give and then selflessly give more as if caring for a child. Every gardener has enjoyed the time spent with a rose when the rose is magnificently beautiful, but every gardener also knows that the other side of a beautiful rose is one that fails to flourish and requires much attention with little reward. Overall, however, the benefits outweigh the disappointments, and a gardener's whole life is affected by the fruits of his labor and the joy found in seeing a new blossom burst into existence.

I can't help thinking, however, that what we are seeing is the "fallen" version of this species and that a rose in the Garden of Eden would look different; it would be thornless, disease free, always in flower and always fragrant, and would require no maintenance!

What features in the current rose can be seen to represent love -- and what kind of love does it represent? While romantic love is the first to come to mind, surely a more substantial agape love is represented as well.

A list of features would start at the flower itself, noted for its beauty, purity, softness, variety of shape and color, and of course its fragrance. Then comes the abundance of petals, the amount of blooms per bush, and just how impressive it is.

How we are attracted to the flower -- as we are with love itself -- and nearly all of us have an impression left with us after experiencing all these features. Everyone with whom some sort of love is shared, received, or given leaves a lasting impression on our lives.

A God who is described in Psalms as knowing all about us even before we came into being and still was happy for that to happen must be the ultimate rose!

There are some minor connected features of beauty in this plant that should be noted as well, such as the shape of the bush, the color of foliage, and the lovely orange hip that appears in due course if allowed. Love comes in different forms and strengths; it stays for fleeting moments or it lasts for eternity.

The "fallen" side of this plant is most obviously found in the thorns, which remind us that even the most beautifully cultivated human version and character of love is flawed and cannot be called perfect and without blemish; diseases and pests love to attack and feed off the rosebush just as our enemy and accuser cannot stand any form of love and tries to destroy all forms of it in our lives. There is only one kind of perfect love, found in and given by God -- this kind of rose-love has not a thorn or pest or disease.

Its beauty and fragrance are so strong as to be irresistible to those who search for and find it or who stumble upon it unplanned.

Lastly, our humble, flawed rose cannot produce its best without constant maintenance and intervention. It is a prisoner of season, it blesses us greatly for a time and starves us cruelly for a while as well, but always, we in the garden are convinced how bleak and impoverished our display is without it.

Picture Psalms: A Season of Love © 2007 by Mal Austin