A rose by any other name...

I love spring.  I love the promise and hope of new life.  This year I am loving watching our yard come to  life.  Because we moved in during the winter, we have no idea what we have (except for giant pine and sweet gum trees).  Last week I discovered a beautiful bush on the side of the house with pink roses all over it.  Audra and I were so excited to have roses.  She picked a few and put them in a vase.  A couple of days later I was talking to a lady down the street.  She had rosebushes too, but hers weren't pretty like mine.  Hers were pruned.  There was not one leaf or bud--just sticks.  I thought maybe I should prune my rosebush like she did so I started asking her questions.   After we talked for a while she said, "Honey, I don't think you have roses.  What you are describing does not sound like roses.  I've walked by your house and I've never seen roses."  Well, I THOUGHT I had roses.  She followed me  back to our house to see my "rose" bush.  She took one look and said, "Honey, those are camellias.  You don't have to do anything to them.  Just leave them alone.  They don't have any scent and they don't have any thorns.  You know, roses always have thorns."
Did you know that?  Did you know that to have a beautiful rose, you also have to have  thorns?  Camellias and roses  are both beautiful flowers, but only one has thorns and only one has a fragrance.  Only one has to suffer through the pruning process to achieve its beauty.
Are you a camellia or a rose?  Have you suffered?  Does your life have thorns?  Learn to embrace those thorns because with  them comes great beauty and a life-giving fragrance.  Accept the pruning of the divine gardener.  He has lots of camellias, but he desires fragrant roses.

15 For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?   (2 Corinthians 2:15-16)