Good-byes, the Rose, and the Crab
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Text:
Isa. 35:1 The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Flowers have many good lessons. I hold two long stem roses in my hand,one is a rose in bloom, the other a tight bud,
and I talk to the rose. I look around and note all the flowers here whispering love and hope.
I hate good-byes, no matter what you call them.
As a little boy we visited my Great Grandfather Moses in Jellico, TN. Jellico is on I-75 on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
We had driven down from Cincinnati, Ohio to visit. I really loved him and he was so fun to be around. We spent a few days
with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Moses. We could always feel love there.
It was time to leave and we were saying our farewells and good-byes, and I could not find my Great Grandfather, he disappeared.
I looked and looked for him, and I couldn’t find him anywhere. I went to the outhouse, and no grandpa? I went to the smoke
house and no grandpa, I just couldn’t find him to say good-bye and give him a hug. We loaded up in the car, a 1956 green and
white Mercury, and started down the gravel road for home.
I was looking out the back window, and I saw Great Grandpa Moses standing in the corn patch, with his head bowed low.
I asked Dad to stop the car so I could run and hug Grandpa good-bye.
Dad refused to stop and kept driving. Dad told me Farewells were sometimes painful, and some people never liked to say
good-bye. Dad went on to say, Son, you don’t understand what I am saying today, but someday you will understand this very well.
I did not understand at all. For many years I did not understand what my Dad was saying.
One day, I was 18, we loaded up and went to the airport, my older brother was going to Viet Nam. We had friends that left and
never returned from this combat zone.
I felt tears in my aching heart, and I understood what my Grandpa felt that day in the corn patch. I went to the bathroom and stayed
until his plane taxied down the run way.
In August, 1997, I played my guitar and sang How Great Thou Art, I turned and watched my Dad move to the pulpit, and he spoke
for my Mom’s funeral, and I understood how painful it was to say farewell to my Mother. My Mom’s blanket is the sod, her grave
overlooks the State Capital and the Governor’s Mansion, but I had to say good-bye Mom.
I understood what my Dad had warned me about many years ago about my Great Grandpa Moses hiding when we left.
Revelations 21 records "7 NO MORES." No more pain, no more sea to spawn storms and separate us, no more death, no more
sorrow, no more crying, no more curse, and NO MORE SAD FAREWELLS.
A red rose whispers of passion and love. Hear the rose whisper of the greatness of God.
I often hold a long stem rose in my hand, and I talk to the rose. I tell how beautiful the rose is.
The red reminds me how much Jesus loves me. Red reminds me of blood and the power of life. Red reminds me of forgiveness
and life. Jesus shed his blood for us.
I talk about the green being a symbol of growth. I tell about how the leaf gives itself to the support of the plant.
I talk about the thorns role in the protection of the plant. If you take a rose, you will also have to take the thorns, they are a package
deal. I tell how the thorn is a direct product of the fall from grace, thorns are part of the curse. Often the sweetness of life is
interrupted by some painful thorn.
We don’t throw away roses because they have thorns, we focus on the beauty, not just the pain.
I tell about those that have caught a vision into the eternal and have reported how beautiful the rose’s are in heaven, and they
have reported to us that the roses in heaven do not have any thorns. The restoration of the plan of God.
The Crown that Jesus wore on earth was a Crown of thorns. There is a valuable lesson in this crown, for all a thorn is ---
it is an involuted leaf. ( in-VO -lute-d.)
This involuted leaf is just a leaf wrapped up in itself,life has a way of getting us to withdraw in some painful questions, when
we should launch out in the deep. Jesus wore a crown that represented the selfishness of a man’s heart. The next time we will
see Jesus, He will not have a crown of painful thorns, but His will be a crown of jewels of gold.
The crowns we see in heaven will be laid at our Savior’s feet, not crowns of selfishness but crowns given to our HOPE of the Ages.
In any family there have been some thorns, some were accidental others were just selfishness.
But we must not throw away the rose because there were thorns.
I was reading in the Sep’t/Oct. 2002 Arthritis Today Magazine an article entitled, "THE JOURNEY TO FORGIVENESS."
It said the destination is worth the trip --- especially when it comes to your health. Seems there are many health problems that
can grow out of unforgiveness. Maybe some of us would perfer to be mad and sick than to let go and forgive?
The article says: The resolution of resentments may spell the difference between bad days and good days.
One of the greatest things you could do today for your family and for yourself is to forgive and let go. You might be surprised, ---
you might set yourself free. Don’t focus on the thorns in life, focus on the red rose. Maybe we are learning what Jesus taught
to be the truth? There is a ROSE among the thorns.We must press on, and overcome the obstacles.
I talk about how brief the beauty of a rose is. Life is like a spider’s web... so weak and frail.
Life is like a vapor, it is here and soon gone. Life is temporary at best .... Psalms 90:12 SO TEACH ME TO NUMBER MY DAYS ....
We all head toward death at 60 minutes an hour, 1440 minutes a day. Are we spending our time wisely?
GOD GIVES EACH MAN
1. TIME 2. TALENT 3. ENERGY
WHAT YOU LOVE YOU WILL FIND TIME FOR... ? ??
WHAT WE DO WITH THESE THREE GIFTS IS OUR GIFT BACK TO GOD AND TO OUR FELLOW MAN.
Any Master gardener grows several kinds of flowers, if he is serious he will have many roses growing. The Master knows
when to prune his flowers. But the Master Gardener knows the roses have a purpose.
The rose might just be grown to adore a beautiful wedding of two hearts coming together as one.
I look at the rose and express it’s beauty to the eye, but this rose was cut for more than the eyes, it was cut to express
the heart of love.
Some roses will be cut in full bloom, but any good gardener knows, some roses will be cut as buds. The gardener knew
when he planted the rose bush, this will be used to express LOVE, and the plan was all along, someday you will be cut for
the Master will have need of your beauty.
Will you ponder this? I want you to ponder this. God has a plan.
Faith learns to trust the plan of the Master Gardener. Faith knows God has a plan. Yet daily, menial nothingness has a way
of hiding the plan from our eyes. Rose gardens and roses have a purpose.
Have you ever put together a big puzzle?
Did you ever use the picture on the box to help you know the overall view? Of course! Well, we have a puzzle, the pieces I
do not understand, and I have no great oversight, I just must trust ... there is a Guiding Hand.
I have learned to say I am sorry, quicker and more often, for I know there is a bigger picture and there is more than this.
Father lead me to the Rock that is higher than I! We must learn to trust ... how can you sink through a solid rock?
We must trust the Master gardener.
One day my Grandson and I were riding in my pickup truck. My grandson, Matthew, was very concerned the
"sun was going down," and we were loosing the view of the sun.
I said, Grandson, not to worry, the sun is not gone, it is just gone from our view. The sun is still shining, you will see in
the morning. Well, family, the SON is still shining, our tears hid the view, but this, one can see, the SON shining eternally
bright, on Heaven’s fair shore.
Change from the beautiful opened rose to the rose bud, and try to make it open? I break the petals off and they fall to the floor.
Unfolding of the Rose (writer unknown)
A young, new preacher was walking with an older, more seasoned preacher in the garden one day and feeling a bit insecure
about what God had for him to do, he was inquiring of the older preacher. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed
the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals.
The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have
to do with his wanting to know the WILL OF GOD for his life and for his ministry.
Because of his high respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to TRY to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact...
It wasn’t long before he realized how impossible it was to do so.
Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older preacher began
to recite the following poem...
UNFOLDING THE ROSEBUD
It is only a tiny rosebud, A flower of God’s design; But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine. The secret of unfolding flowers Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly, When in my hands they fade and die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud, This flower of God’s design, Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
So I’ll trust in Him for His leading Each moment of every day.
I will look to him for His guidanceEach step of the pilgrim way. The pathway that lies before me,
Only my Heavenly Father knows. I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments, Just as He unfolds the rose. Author Unknown
You are not smart enough to unfold a rose bud without damaging it, only God and time can unfold the rose bud.
Trust God, He is unfolding us, God is building a church and a people, trust Him.
Consider the lilies, God cares for them. Consider the Father kisses them each morning with dew, and He is not too
busy to care about you.... (From the song... Consider the Lilies.)
There is a plan, there is a purpose, wait patiently and trust His Word.
The Master knows when therefore to gather the Rose, while it is still in it’s prime. Some roses will stay on the bush
until they fade to a dull brown, their beauty faded. As we know all lovely things will fade away, but there comes a day
when no heart aches will come, and the roses will never fade.
Here they bloom but for a season, soon their beauty will decay, BUT WE ARE GOING TO A CITY,
WHERE THE ROSES NEVER FADE.
Is not the rose sweeter in the bud than in the prime?
My blessed rose bud we have yielded you into the Master’s bouquet, hand picked and prepared for the Master’s
Wedding, we shall meet at Jesus’ feet.
Farewell our beautiful rose, FAREWELL, THIS IS NOT THE END, farewell until the day of our eternal reunion
where we shall part no more. Farewell, my rose farewell.
The eternal summer will never know a faded rose. Wait and see.
Until then, my heart will go on singing, for I see the Master’s Bouquet.
HAVE YOU INVESTED IN THE ETERNAL? ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR TIME, TALENT, AND EFFORT WISELY?
Let me close with this story, at first you may not catch my point, but hang in there, when I land you
will see a wonderful point.
I had been teaching in Virginia, and I resigned my position and accepted a pastorate of a mission work in eastern
Kentucky. The area was very poor, and the little church had little to offer.
We had to move into the government housing, and one of the conditions of our lease was we were not allowed to
have a dog or a cat. My youngest son, then 3, loved animals and wanted a dog. I was ashamed to tell my son, I made
so little money, that we had to live in the housing project and he could not have a dog.
One day, riding home from church in our Pinto station wagon, my youngest son, Joshua asked me, "Daddy, why can
everybody at church have a dog, and I can’t have one?"
I could not answer him? Had I made the right choice leaving teaching school to pastor a church that had averaged 3
the year before? I was glad it was dark, I cried and felt I had failed my two sons.
Linda noticed there was a clause in the lease that we were allowed to have an aquarium. So we saved our pennies
and saved until we could buy the aquarium. I made a shelf out of some scrape lumber. We purchased several little fish
and had enough money to buy a little crab.
The boys loved the crab. It had one big pincher and one small pincher. It would crawl up the grass and sit right at the top
of the aquarium and wave it’s one big pincher back and forth. My boys would stand and wave back to our pet crab.
The little crab was a joy to our home. When company would come, the first things the boys would do was to introduce the
people to the crab and wave at it, and the crab would wave back.
We came in from service one day, and my oldest son started crying. They went to the side of the aquarium and my boy
didn’t wave. I knew something was wrong, and there our pet crab was there dead.
I got the net and pulled the dead crab’s body out of the tank. It was pretty quiet, as we prepared for the funeral. We got a
nice cup and placed the lifeless body into the cup. I sure didn’t have the words to comfort my sons?
The telephone rang, and this old lady was on the phone. She could talk all night. I sat the cup down on the table and I talked
to her. I later explained the death of the crab to her and while we were talking, the boys went over to the fish tank, they just
stood in front of the tank, they seemed hopeless.
I heard this terrible scream, my oldest son was screaming to the top of his voice. I dropped the phone and ran into the room,
there Marty and Joshua stood waving at the aquarium, there was the crab on top of the grass waving at them, and they were
waving back. What we thought was the dead crab was the old shell. The crab had a new shell. The new shell was bigger and
brighter in color. The dead crab in the cup was not the dead crab at all, it was just the shell. The crab had a new body, better
than the old.
May I suggest a truth to you today, a corpse in the casket is not our loved one? It is just the shell. This shell
had become a prison, the bars were bones. Today, our loved ones are rejoicing, together forever with the Lord.
Are we living right? What is important to us?
How could I close today without telling you what I think are some of the most important aspects of life? I think God and His Only
Son Jesus are important. I may sound like a preacher, but I think the church, with all her faults, is very important. I think
faithfulness to God, the church, and family are important. Are you investing in things that don’t really matter?
You could help me, you could read this and make some copies and pass it to someone else. You could be a team member,
or you could just do nothing. It is up to you? I have done my part.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr., PO Box 331, Smiths Grove, KY, 42171
Kyfingers@aol.com
