Day 17: God’s Rose of Sharon

For this Easter season, I would just like to share some reflections on the greatest servant of all: God himself in a short “story” I wrote awhile back on the fictional origins of his name, The Rose of Sharon.

Humankind has often speculated what a perfect world would be like. Today it seems it can be nothing more than imagination. For our world is certainly not perfect. Everyday the news carries another account of bloodshed in some far away land--- or on a neighboring street. Our homes themselves are pictures of chaos and sin: fathers deserting their families, mothers rejecting their own children, siblings at each other’s throats, and teenagers leaving for the promises of this world. What a paradise, indeed.

But once. Once there was a paradise. A place without evil, without pain, without anger, or bitterness, or hatred. A place where mankind and creation lived in peace together. But above all, a place where God walked. Where He came to see His creation. His masterpiece of perfection.

Like a great artist, every detail was planned out from the tiniest chromosome in the smallest ant to the highest stone on the tallest mountain.  The brook ran over the stones God had placed in the best spots to create the gurgling, rushing music of a stream. The flowers opened and closed by turn--- some at dusk, some at dawn, all at the right time to give the world a constantly changing mosaic of color.

Among all the plant life, the rose stood as one of the most beautiful and admired. Some of them were red, some violet, some yellow, some white--- all flawlessly crafted for the enjoyment of all the senses. One could hear the butterflies fluttering around the roses to get food. See their stately stance. Smell the fragrance of their sense. Touch their velvety petals without fear of pain.

And humans? They were there. In freedom and without fear, ruling over and enjoying all that God had created. Adam and Eve lived the philosopher’s dream of peace, harmony, and love. More importantly, they lived mankind’s dream of full fellowship with the Father, nothing separating them from Him and His love. This world was made for them, and it was their choice to stay in perfection or to curse it all by their actions.

They had everything good and everything helpful. The only thing they did not have, the one thing off limits, was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Such a simple task. Of all of the thousands of fruit trees, they could have them all, eat from them all, rest under them all--- except that one. But that one was what they chose. In an instant, their perfect world collapsed.

Sin, evil, pain, guilt, fear--- they infected them both. And not just them. It spread throughout all creation. Peaceful animals became predators. The weak became their prey. Leaves withered, flowers faded, and when God came to the garden that evening, it was to explain to Adam and Eve what they had done.

Oh, they had been told before when God first set down the rule, but they had not seen or felt it then. They had chosen sin. With sin came death. They had chosen their own way without God. Without God came pain. They had chosen to serve the enemy. With him came fear. And with the curse humanity had brought upon itself, God gave hope.

A hope of a Redeemer. One who would come and take the sin, pain, and fear of the world onto Himself. One who would take the death for all. One who would choose to bear everything His creation had chosen. One who would finally and completely defeat the enemy. And One Who could restore what sin had stolen.

 God finished His curse upon the earth by bringing into it thorns and thistles. The once perfect world with nothing that brought pain, nothing that was not pleasant to the eye, nothing that was not useful, was no more. Not just Adam, not just Eve, not just mankind would reap the results of their sin, but all of creation would. Bears that could once pick fruit at pleasure would now feel pain at every touch of a berry bush; birds that could once land on any tree they chose would now have to avoid the branches of some. Nothing would be without pain.

Like sin, the thorns grew everywhere. Trees, bushes, grasses, wildflowers--- all became marred by their presence. But of the flowers, the one that received it the most was the most beautiful. For the rose, the beautiful, flawless rose, was dealt a flaw as thorns grew out of its stock.

Sin was not the rose's choice. The curse was not its doing. But it still paid the price. It still took the thorns. It, one of the most beautiful plants in all creation, bore the marks of the curse. Thorns pierced through the gentle outer layers. Sharp edges for one purpose. For pain. Thorns that could pierce human flesh and draw blood.

Years passed, and mankind came to see the full effects of their actions. Brothers rose against brothers. Nations attacked and enslaved each other. Envy ruined friendships. Lust ruined marriages. Selfishness ruined lives. Every new life brought a mother pain. Every death was another sign of separation.

Until one day another mother screamed in pain as her son entered the world. An infant boy felt the coolness of the night air on his skin for the first time. A baby born into obscurity and raised in poverty, by human standards he was just another kid. But this was no ordinary child. He had orchestrated the beginning of creation. Now he was living out His plan for its redemption. Its deliverance; His suffering.

As a man He walked among us. He experience what mankind’s choice did to His perfection. He watched as the precious people He had created hated, betrayed, and killed each other. He saw His friends die, and His family misunderstand Him.  He was tempted to give in to the sin surrounding him, but He loved what He had created ---and we had destroyed--- too much. He was here for a purpose; nothing would take Him from that goal.

Then He lived through some of the hardest things a man can face--- all in one night. He, God in human form, was hated, betrayed, and killed. Oh, yes, He had always known that was why He was here, but it still hurt Him. He was led up a hill He had made; hung on a tree He had made; and killed by and for the humans He had made. The sun that He had ordered into the sky hid when its Maker died. The ground He had used to make man shook in fear. And it was finished.

Sin was not the Creator’s choice. It was mankind’s doing. But the Creator chose to pay the price. He took the thorns. The Creator of beauty bore in His body the marks of the curse. Nails pierced through the gentle layers of His hands and feet. The sharp edges fulfilled their purpose well. They brought pain. And on His head, a crown of thorns that pierced His flesh and drew blood. God had redeemed His creation.

The curse had pieced the most beautiful of the plant life with thorns. Then it pieced the most Beautiful One of all with them. God’s Rose of Sharon had taken the thorns and bought redemption for us all.