Rose Buds

In the most beautiful gardens, though carefully tended by the most skillful botanist, there is an occasional rose that buds, but never opens. In all respects the rose is like all the others but some unseen cause keeps it from blooming. It wilts and fades away without coming to its radiant unfolding. What happens in nature's garden occasionally happens also in the garden of God's human family. A baby begins its life, beautiful, precious...but with some unseen, mysterious band sealing that life so that it can never come to its rightful unfolding. This child, too, like the bud that never fully opens, gradually fades away to be gathered back into God's heavenly garden of souls where all imperfections are made perfect; all injustices are made right, all mysteries are explained, and all sorrows turned into happiness.


Shared on BBC 7/18/11