This morning I was meditating on what I see in my wife, my daughters and grand-daughters: the rose. Not the roses that have little to no fragrance because man has cross-bred them, but the natural roses that God created that have many petals and a strong fragrance. The bud doesn’t have a fragrance yet. It’s shut in and undeveloped. As the rose opens up – its fragrance is released. The life of the rose can be over but its oil lives on with others.
As I watch these women in my family, I see their inner beauty beginning to flower out with a stronger fragrance. Some of these women express their fragrance by writing, some in service, but all of them by their love for the Lord. What is powerful is that other women are drawn or will be drawn to them by the fragrant oil of their worship of Jesus.
My grand-daughters who I see as rose buds now, will someday open up and allow the fragrance of who they are in Christ to bless all those around them. This brought me to another women who brought a fragrance to My Lord and washed His feet with it. What Mary did was of great worth when she poured on Jesus the precious oil before He went to the cross.
It has been said that the fragrance of Mary’s oil stayed with the Lord 48 hours. It was with Him during Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denials, while He was lamenting in the garden with His Father, when His flesh was being ripped open by the whips used on Him, as He walked the cross up the hill and as He hung on the cross, and is still with Him today.
To the women in my family, let the fragrance of your life revel your inner beauty of love for Jesus. That will be what people remember you for.
“Crucified – laid behind a stone – You lived to die – rejected and alone – like a ROSE – trampled on the ground – You took the fall and thought of me – above all…..
Above all powers – above all kings – above all nature – and all created things – above all wisdom – and all the ways of man – You were here before the world began.
Above all kingdoms – above all thrones – above all wonders – the world has ever known. Above all wealth – and treasures of the earth; there’s no way to measure what You’re worth!”
Song: “Above All” by Michael W. Smith