Theme for the week: Lessons from Roses
February 18, 2022 (Friday)
A visitor to earth from another planet might ask, “What are humans like?” How would you answer that? Well, how much time do you have? There are so many different kinds of people, such a question would be impossible to answer adequately.
We humans have something in common with roses. We are unique. There are 150 species of roses, and thousands of hybrids. Likewise, there are all kinds of human beings. The human race is like Texas wildflowers by the roadsides in spring, where wildflowers of many colors, shapes and types of display grow together. The earth continues to support a growing population, which today numbers in the billions, but a thorough study of humans would show that no two of them are identical. Each person is unique.
We need to remember the little song we sang in Sunday School years ago: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.” Ray Stephens follows up that song with one of his own: “Everything is beautiful in its own way..”
Roses are unique and each one pretty much does its own thing. People are different. We interact with each other. We influence others and they influence us.
Each of us has his/her own identity. No two of us are exactly the same. We are not robots or clones. We are different from each other, yet the Lord has commanded us to love one another. Peace with each other can be attained when we have Peace with God and Peace within ourselves. That happens when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and turn our lives over to Him.
Jesus wants all the people of the world to live in peace with each other. Love and forgiveness should be words that characterize our attitudes toward others.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
—St. Francis of Assisi
https://youtu.be/2SrVtIRnkfw?t=45
Bonus song about peace:
Click here to read about the many varieties of roses.