Most of you know that I'm a huge fan of appropriate analogies. To me, the proper analogy can connect two people without any hope of understanding each other enough to allow them to accomplish great things together. The other day I discovered during the course of a conversation the perfect analogy for my own life. Essentially, my life is a fantastically enormous and glorious rose bush that has occasional infections of botanical disease. God is the gardener, and it is only through the sometimes painful process of putting Him in control and allowing Him to prune away the diseased parts of the rose bush that I am able to bloom effectively. Continuing this thought:
The full blooms of the rose bush are my life's beauties. My children; selected moments of my generally happy marriage; my accomplishments as an artist; my accolades. These beautiful things in my life bloom with bursts of vibrant color that others cannot help but notice. They often are encouraged and delighted by the fragrant, attractive flowers. Some "roses" are in full, wild splendor and reflect the happiest moments of my life. My wedding day, for instance, or the moment of the birth of each of my children (or the special time in which we became acquainted and bonded, in the case of the two eldest children). Some of the flowers are but buds that have not yet bloomed. These reflect those beautiful things which have not yet come to pass but are works in progress. A new and glorious work of quilled art as I add pieces to it, for example, or the successful sale of some of my smaller works. A new friendship with only a few memories to it, perhaps. All of these will hopefully, in time, also burst forth in radiant color and sweet fragrance.
Sadly, some of these large and abundant blooms fade and give way to newer ones not because of disease, but for the sad fact that I cannot recall and hold to every little thing and so do forget some of the memories that once upon a time meant so much and made the rose bush so beautiful. But no matter, no matter. There are, IF I submit to the will of the gardener, constantly abundant and plenteous blooms for the enjoyment of others.
Are you still wondering about the "botanical disease"? I will explain. Rose bushes suffer from a particularly nasty fungal disease called "black spot". The information site eSSORMENT.com offers this description of black spot:
"Black spot is one of the most serious and widespread of rose diseases, and it strikes the yellow strains of roses especially hard. A fungal infection, black spot is characterized by the appearance of large black spots on leaf surfaces. Eventually the spots spread and join, and the infected leaves turn yellow and fall off. If enough leaves die, the plant will be unable to photosynthesize the nutrients it needs to live, and may itself die. Although black spot doesn't visibly affect the canes, the spores of the disease often cling to them."
In my analogy, these black spot infections are negative things that cross my path; those things that poison me from the inside and cause the beautiful blooms to be just a little less spectacular. As I have apparently exhausted this blog's capacity for text, please continue to the other blogs of this topic that continue my line of thought and reflection.
