I
hand you a rose. What's the very first thing you do with it?
You
hold it in your hand and sigh, "I love it", right?
And then you immediately plunge your thumb in the middle
of it and start prying the darn thing open, right?
Of
course not!
My
friend, what a beautiful metaphor God gave us in the story of
the rose. We have no power to make the rose open. None. It will
open if it opens! All we have control over is its environment.
We can choose to provide the environment that FEEDS the rose
or one that DOES NOT FEED the rose. It's that simple. We can't
make it eat, and we can't make it bloom.
How
well I've learned this! Now and then when I purchase a dozen
roses for my honey, I'll unexpectedly end up with a "bad
batch". No matter how well I cut 'em and watered 'em, they
were not going to open! If they're destined to open, then with
my loving care they'll open.
So
when I give you the rose what do you really do? You
google over its beauty and then you run fetch a vase, some filtered
water, maybe some powder food to add to the water, and then
a safe surface where it won't get knocked over. What happens
next? Do you then sit and stare at it all day waiting for it
to open? Naw! And you certainly don't pamper it or coax it or
squeeze it out of fear that it won't open. You do what
you can do, then you let go of the rest.
OK,
you know where I'm goin' with this, don't you? Let's talk about
love. You gotta get your fat
thumb outta the love!
