“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him; the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord; and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:1-3
Advent and roses have a number of things in common. Advent is a time of preparation, prayer, introspection, and a time filled with anticipation knowing the birth of Jesus is near.
I grew up learning about roses. I spent countless hours with my dad in his rose gardens planting, pruning, doing all it takes to care for a garden. In the beginning I did not enjoy this work, not in the least. His rose gardens took months of work and waiting for blooming was hard. I wanted to do other things that were more fun. This is not how rose gardens work. I started to learn that it was in the work, the time I spent with my dad that was more important than the blooming. Learning about him, our family stories, and about his faith. He used to talk about how much God loves us, but as a part of that love we are to do the work. Not to earn His love rather to become more of the person He wants us to be. As I grew older the type of work I was called to do was different. Work beyond growing roses. At the time I didn’t understand what that meant, but if my dad or my sister said I needed to do something important that is what I did. Over the years when I began to see the roses blooming, I saw beauty, I saw love, and I saw the gifts God gives that come through doing the work.
Advent is a time of prayer and doing the work to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus. Sometimes that work is hard – going through grief, making changes, learning to see things in a different light. These are things God calls us to do and most likely seeing the fruit of that work much later.
Prayer: Father God, thank you for the gift of Advent. Your love is always here. You are always near. Help us to see the gifts of Advent now and help us to look outward to share these gifts with those around us. We ask these things in the name of the Son of the living God, Amen.
Karen Compton Fuqua