Christian Living

---

Jesus said it’s better to give than it is to receive. He’s completely right, although…I really do enjoy receiving flowers, and lots of them.

Not counting corsages, I remember the first time I ever got flowers from a guy. It was my freshman year of college and the sender was a southern gentleman, a Kappa Alpha who had sweetheart roses delivered two days after our fist date. The problem was that he set the bar really high for every other first date I would have for awhile. It didn’t take long to realize that most men would NOT shower me with flowers.

I did end up marrying a “sender,” though—a man who will “say it with flowers”, usually roses. I love roses—any size, any color—and my husband and I enjoy the different varieties around our house. We have traditional red, yellow, white, pink and coral roses, along with the “mystery bush” that blooms a different color every year, its spectrum ranging from light orange to a brilliant hot pink.

With so many colors in my garden, it shouldn’t shock people to see that some of my roses are green. Yes, that’s green as in green. These roses are called “Green Ice” and I ordered them from an ad in the back of a magazine. Faithfully, they bloom every year without any extra attention from me. They are, in what appears to be my lone opinion, quite lovely.

“I’ve never seen green roses before,” most people say, eyeing my flower bed as though it contains some weird life form dropped from outer space. “They sure are…unusual.”

That’s the closest I’ve come to receiving a compliment on my green roses, though they did once inspire my husband to recite poetry:

Hear now, hear now,
Sam I Am…
I do not like
Green roses and ham

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not like these roses are the color of split-pea soup. They’re a soft, kind of minty green. You can search the Internet and see that many people admire these hearty miniatures.

Unfortunately, none of these people live close to me.

The problem, I’ve ascertained, is that my green roses don’t fit the “norm.” Floral outcasts in their own flowerbed, they don’t meet most people’s idea of what roses should look like.

I’ve noticed that many people quickly reject what doesn’t fit their image of “right”, and this includes Christians snubbing Christians.

Back when I worked as a newspaper reporter, I did a feature on a group of Christians, former Hell’s Angels who had joined a motorcycle ministry called Heaven’s Saints, one that takes the Gospel to biker rallies, swap meets and other dicey places.

Between the Harley Hogs and tattoos, these folks would downright terrify the clean-cut family smiling from the cover of a church bulletin. Yet, they were some of the most loving Christians I’ve ever been honored to spend time with. On the flip side, I’ve known the squeaky clean bulletin people who were the first to look away when someone needed help.

I Samuel 16: 7 says “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Why can’t all Christians do the same? Why must some insist upon “biting and devouring each other”? (Galatians 5:15) How many blessings do they miss—because they never get past the outer to see the love of Christ on the inner?

Jesus said “many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 8:11).

Heaven will be filled with unique and fascinating people whose appearances and life experiences differed from ours; with that in mind, let’s commit to Romans 15: 5-7: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity of among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

Jesus—the Rose of Sharon—is the fragrance Christians are called to spread, to each other as well as the unsaved. (2 Corinthians 2: 14-15)

Let’s give our brother that rose…and stop being the thorn in his side.

©Donna G. Morton, May 2007

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE