When you feel crushed by painful trials, remember you are cupped in God’s hand. You may feel like a rose petal he’s crushing but in turn, you’ll exude a beautiful fragrance of worship.
Rose, petals, Christ, imitators, imitation, beautiful, fragrance, worship
Oh my, you should see the roses in my backyard!
Hi I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and this June, I have been picking and plucking my Double Delight roses. Over the last month, I’ve been asking friends to help me cut a few stems you know, and place them in a vase or two around the house. Earlier this week, I placed a single stem of peach-colored roses in my bathroom, and this morning when I was getting up, I noticed that the little arrangement had just about had it. A bunch of the petals were lying on the bathroom counter. But as my friend reached to sweep them up in her hand to trash them, I said, "No, no, wait a minute; here, would you just crush a couple of these petals and let me smell." My friend went ahead and smashed them between her fingers, cupped the torn petals in her hand, lifted them to my face, and I inhaled. What a glorious scent – like some expensive perfume, it was. Intoxicating – that something dying, something torn and crushed could exude such sweetness. Wow!
And I tell you what, that metaphor was not lost on me. It reminded me of one of my favorite lines by an anonymous author who wrote, “In the closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose sole purpose for living is to please God with their lives. The Lord will take them farther and through more pain and conflicts than other believers. Outwardly, they'll seem smitten of God, and afflicted,’ as it says in Isaiah 53, yet to God, they are his beloved. For when they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they will exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels will weep in quiet awe at their surrender to the Lord.”
Wow, that’s a beautiful quote! And I have to ask, could that be you? Could I be describing you today? Do you feel the overwhelming pressure of being plucked and crushed? I know I sometimes do. I’ve told you before that I deal with pain now and then. The other week it was a sinus infection. Like, hello? But years in this wheelchair have taught me there’s a rhyme, there’s a reason, there’s a plan and a purpose. And my life, your life is to please God – to exude the fragrance of a life yielded, submitted, acquiesced, surrendered and deferred to him, and to do it so sweetly, not with a sour disposition; not with dragging your feet, but no, with a sweet surrender. No room for an attitude that grumbles and whines. Nothing pleasing when you smile on one hand, but on the other, are kind of, like you know, simmering with resentment deep down inside.
Our guide is Ephesians 5:1-2 where it says, “Be imitators of God, therefore … just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Friend, did you get that? You and I are to be imitators of the Lord Jesus who, if he gave himself up as a fragrant offering, should we do or be any less? When we feel crushed by painful trials, it should help to know we are cupped in God’s hand. So, friend, today you just may be one of those petals of a flower that God is crushing. And yea, it will hurt but, can you exude the fragrance of worship? Will you? And, hey, I would really like to hear from you on this topic – especially if you need prayer in the midst of a crushing time. Just go to joniradio.org and post your comments – how we can pray for you, and what your needs are. Let your confidence in God be a sacrificial offering, because you are one of the highly beloved of the Lord! Oh and one more thing, I want to send you a copy of our Joni and Friends newsletter, so just go to joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends