What a joy it is to celebrate the exodus of the Jewish people and decorate my home this Passover Spring season! Celebrating our “crossing over” or exodus from personal captivity as well as having empathy while pursuing justice for those still in captivity is an important tenet of Judaism. As a survivor, I speak out against domestic and familial violence this year and every year until there are #nomore victims. May those suffering from various forms of captivity choose to be ever-blooming despite the good, the bad, and the bugly…despite life’s prickly pain! Moreover, may God use each of us to remove the “leaven” of such adversities from our homes and society (Exodus 12:15, 19-20), while pursuing justice for those awaiting an exodus of their very own!
A couple of weeks ago, on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the day God defines your upcoming year, I accidentally discovered a large lump in one of my breast. It was early in the morning and my breast itched. While laying there and upon scratching my breast, a large, hard lump made itself known. This upcoming Monday, October 5th, during Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles, which is all about depending on God during our wilderness journey as well as our eternal home, I have my first of presumably several doctor’s appointments.
Perhaps it is a large cyst, perhaps it is benign, or perhaps it is cancer. Regardless, I have learned to praise God, the One in complete control, the One who ordains each day, each trial, and each triumph. I trust Him and His will even if it doesn’t align with my own.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month as well as Domestic Violence Awareness. I have already overcome one and helped many others. Perhaps I will be overcoming another. No matter what the doctors, mammograms, and tests say, I have learned to praise God in all circumstances for in doing so, I have experienced peace, contentment, and even joy. That is the real, eternal miracle. Be ever-blooming despite the prickles! If you pray, I appreciate them on my behalf.
Update: As it turned out, the lump I felt was a cluster of cysts and not cancer. Yay God!
Happy Rosh HaShanah… Good year…May you be ever-blooming throughout each season of the new year! White is a traditional color used in this holiday to symbolize purity, forgiveness, and fresh beginnings or mercy. The rose featured in this photo is ‘Pristine’, a white hybrid-tea with hints of pink.
It’s been said upon taking a late-night stroll, white roses tend to glow in the dark offering a natural, but romantic atmosphere. Unlike some plant life, roses stay open all day and all night. The white rose symbolizes purity, innocence, and spirituality while providing an alluring aura. Although all roses enrapture us, perhaps the white rose beckons a higher calling of beauty and splendor. Scientifically, the color white encapsulates all the glorious colors of God’s rainbow. It also could poetically symbolize the utmost radiance of His glory. Moreover, a rose, in any color, shape, or size displays the master gardener’s splendor.
“I am the Lord; I called you with righteousness and I will strengthen your hand; and I formed you, and I made you for a people’s covenant, for a light to nations. To open blind eyes, to bring prisoners out of a dungeon, those who sit in darkness out of a prison.” Isaiah 42:6-7
Likewise, our purpose is to display our Master Gardener’s splendor by being the attractive white rose growing and glowing in a dark world lost without God’s light, without God’s Torah as light (Psalm 119:105-106; Proverbs 6:23). Whether we are living in an urban city, like the City of York, Pennsylvania (the rose pictured above is called such), living in the suburbs, living in the countryside, or even living on a sailboat as I once did, as Abba’s roses, we are to bloom, for His glory, where we are planted!
‘Full Sail’, an incredibly fragrant and disease-resistant white hybrid tea rose.
Did you know what we commonly refer to as thorns on rose bushes are botanically speaking actually prickles? Thorns run deep within the sap of a branch whereas on a rose, the prickle is just along the surface of the rose’s bark and can be snapped off. Nevertheless, the purpose of the prickle is to protect the rose from predators. Various animals including rabbits, deer, and even horses would find roses a delicious snack if it weren’t for protective prickles. The piercing prickles also protect the plant from caterpillars and other insects that would welcome the climb up with a leafy treat as its reward.
“…God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”2 Chronicles 32:31
As a young woman, I discovered evil can sometimes manifest in the likes of wile handsome devils looking to devour your heart, or more accurately stated, your undergarments. After I found myself divorced, sexual temptations only grew worse within my wanton heart. Feeling defeated emotionally, physically, and most definitely spiritually, I decided I needed to stop “playing the harlot” and get it together! Lo and behold, if a so-called angel of light didn’t come across my path just in time to save me from my new found resolve. You guessed it! A gorgeous man pursued me like no other despite my repeated refusals. In one of my rejections, I explained my commitment to work on an important area neglected in my life… my soul! Shortly thereafter, in yet another persistent attempt to win a date, the devil-in-disguise craftily confessed he was in a Bible study earlier that morning. With this tid-bit of knowledge, my young naïve heart perked up questioning my harsh judgments against his sexy self. Needless to say, when you combine good looks and God talk, with promises to take care of me, I was SOLD! Wish I could say it was a dream come true, but with all the drama this guy brought, I needed Triple A to help me deal with his Triple A’s: Addictions, Affairs, and Abuse! You see, had I been strong in my relationship with Abba Father, bound and guarded with His truth (Proverbs 3), or prickles meant to protect, I would have seen that predator coming! The latter verses of Deuteronomy 12 into Chapter 13 warn that God will test us to see if we will choose Him and His Torah or choose to follow other false gods, false messiahs, or people in error. Instead, I found myself picking and choosing which of God’s boundaries I was going to hop on over like fornication or mingling with false people rather than binding God’s instructions to me to help me remember His Torah, which is His Voice, His Word, His Way, His Truth. I failed to realize as people commissioned to be the light, that the light is living God’s Torah, a set-apart lifestyle.
”For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life…” Proverbs 6:23
The truth is, beloved, spiritual captivity often leads to some form of physical captivity. Just read the accounts of the wicked kings reigning over the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and their outcomes found in the Hebrew Bible to verify. Or, you could erroneously have weak boundaries and consequently rebel against God’s boundaries while falling in lust with addicted, abusive, player type of men like I foolishly did and you too will glean this wisdom soon enough.
If rose bushes aren’t covered in prickles, they would be devoured by all sorts of pestilence and predators. Likewise, do yourself a favor, get rooted in God’s Word and grow some prickles for you too will be tested!
I tried ‘Miracle Grow for Roses’ fertilizer for the first time recently. My mini-roses are producing more than they ever did before! This particular fertilizer provides 18-24-16! Yes, this is a floating garden @ my sailboat. Soon we are moving from Texas to Maryland to be near family. We are shipping our personal items while putting the roses in the car with us as we relocate north. For me, these are my priorities #relationships #roses #religion .
If you are curious about these ‘miraculous’ blooms, this is what the fertilizer looks like. You just mix it with water in a watering can and follow directions with how much and how often. I used regular generic brand potting soil with some purchased bagged garden compost.
Happy Gardening! May we continue to be ‘Ever-Blooming’…
No matter what season we may find ourselves in, Mother’s Day tends to be a sensitive day for women (and even their children too). Holidays like these have a peculiar way of annunciating all life has thrown at us… But today, this year, on this Mother’s Day, it is well with my soul. Whether we are barren or a full house, whether missing the wayward child or moms passed away, whether we are grieving over children lost or celebrating children or grandchildren gained, or any other matter life presents us, I pray we choose to be ‘ever-blooming’ through it all. Every rose has thorns, fights disease, and is attacked by pests, and yet, she blooms.
(This rose I photographed reminded me of my 4 children)
Ever-Blooming Roses 