The Rose (Day 2 from Cleansing Thoughts)

   

                        The next to capture my attention was a lavender rose, just partially opened, called Royal Amethyst. In its early development, the color gives just a hint of being blue, which looks striking against the deep green leaves. As I leaned over to smell it, I could not help but notice it had a fragrance stronger than most of my other roses. As I looked at all the other's blooms on the bush, I thought of how wonderful each stage of a person's life could be seen in them. There were some buds just beginning to form, still wrapped so tightly that no color was visible; that reminded me of a baby yet in its mother's womb. Another, still in bud stage but just barely opened, brought to mind my young grandchildren just beginning life with all their potential yet to be seen. There were others in full bloom that brought a smile to my face as I thought of my husband and myself. We had thought our lives were complete raising our boys, yet now in the fullness of life, we were grandparents and found ourselves looking ahead to the golden years and the new experiences they would bring. Yet this one rose kept drawing me back to it. Maybe because it was in my favorite stage of development, no longer a bud yet not in full bloom. The tightness of its pedals reminded me of someone just beginning to experience a life filled with dreams yet to be fulfilled. How fitting that my thoughts turned to my father, who died when he was just a young man, never seeing the fulfillment of his dreams. Because I was so young at the time, I have no memories to call my own, only those shared by other family members. For many years, I would ask the Lord for just one memory of him, and one day, He answered that prayer. I had been given a keepsake my father had made for my grandfather when he was a small boy; it was a walnut he had carved with the word dad into it. It was after my grandfather had passed away. I had a dream of a large beautiful meadow with the tallest oak tree I had ever seen, and standing under its branches were two figures dressed in long white robes. I couldn't see their faces, but one appeared to be tossing something into the air and catching it in his hand, I found myself being drawn closer to the hand as it caught the object until it was all I could see. Then the hand opened, and in it was a walnut with the word dad carved into it, and I heard a voice say, "I can't believe you kept it all these years it." Just a dream. . . Maybe, but to me, it will always be a memory to call my own. In the Scriptures, amethyst is a symbol of the priesthood. Perhaps the Lord was trying to show me, in this single Royal Amethyst rose, that one day when it is my time to go home to be with Him, I will meet my father, perhaps in the meadow under that same oak tree.