God gave me a rose.
It was awesome.
Do you want to hear the story?
OK, OK, I’ll tell you!
One of our classes this semester is called Spiritual Formations. As a first semester apprentice, we learned about spiritual concepts and did some activation, but this semester is exclusively application. Every Monday, we go to an area of Gainesville that makes me feel like I’m back on the World Race because the vast majority of people only speak Spanish.
We spend a lot of time in listening prayer to see what the Lord has for us during our time in the area. This past Monday, one of our course leader, Justin, felt like we needed to go to a supermarket so our team hopped in the car and headed to one nearby. On the way, I was praying to see if there was anything the Lord wanted to show me or tell me about our time at the store.
I saw a rose and felt like we were supposed to give it to someone.
With that mental image in mind, we paired off and walked into the store. The very first thing we saw was a flower display with roses.
I shouldn’t have been surprised.
My teammate, Anna, and I stood at the display for a while, looking at the flowers. After some time passed, the manager, a kind-faced, older gentleman with a fatherly air about him, passed us and asked if we were going to be getting flowers. We told him that we were just looking. Minutes ticked by and we weren’t getting anything new from the Lord so we wandered around the store, but were quickly drawn back to the flower display. The gentleman was visible when we returned, and I felt a gentle nudge in my spirit to tell him why we were there.
Harnessing some courage, I walked over to the fatherly manager and asked if there were any leftover roses or scrap flowers that would be thrown away (neither of us had brought money so the option of purchasing the rose ourselves was not on the table). Through our discussion, we learned that his name was William and he was a believer. As he walked off to see if there were any flowers in the back the other half of our team appeared.
While we sat there waiting for William, Anna and I explained the circumstances to the others. I jokingly said I would pee my pants out of excitement if he came back with a pink rose. Justin mentioned that he thought the roses were actually going to be for us rather than someone else if William came back with two.
Wouldn’t you know it, William came back with two roses.
One of them was pink.
WHAT?!?
Don’t worry, I didn’t actually pee my pants. Instead, I laughed.
Let’s recap: we went into the store thinking we would be giving someone else a flower, were even willing to accept scraps, but all God wanted to do was love His two daughters.
You should have seen the smiles that Anna and I had when we realized the flowers were a gift from our Father in heaven. I was floored by how surprised and loved I felt. It was as if the Lord was telling us that we shouldn’t settle for scraps when He has roses for us. This all may sound strange, but when you’re the one receiving the love, there is no question about who the sender is.
P.S. Justin got the name Holly, asked if there was an employee working with that name, and they called her to the front of the store on the loudspeaker. When she came up, we got the chance to pray for her and she left with tears of joy in her eyes. Seriously, God cared enough about her to give Justin her name to call her to the front of the store for us to tell her she was loved.
All I have to say is that Jesus rocks.
A rose by any other word would smell as sweet and these particular roses had the fragrance of the Father’s love.
