Take Time - Smell the Roses

Rose of Sharon Shrubs - Sea of Galilee, Israel

Song of Solomon 2:1

"I am the rose of Sharon."

A sweet soul-winner, whom I hold a special place in my heart for, asked me about the significance of “The Rose of Sharon.”

Questions are always a launching pad for my renewed interest in specific areas of Scripture, and a means of my drawing closer to God. I like that!

This particular shrub produces pink flowers and is sometimes known as the "Rock Rose" or “The Rose of Sharon,” or in a pressed form – “Balm of Gilead.” Isn’t that fascinating?

Rose of Sharon - Hebrew "Chavatzelet HaSharon"

"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." Song of Solomon 2:1-2

Three flowers are mentioned by name in the Bible: the SHOSHAN or SHOSHANNA (lily or rose), SHOSHANAT HA'EMAKIM (rose of the valleys) and HAVATZELET HA'SHARON (rose or lily of the Sharon).southeast Europe and southwest Asia as "Rose of Sharon".

What can we learn about Jesus Christ from the Rose of Sharon?

1. Amongst flowers, the rose is deemed the sweetest, but Jesus is infinitely more beautiful in the garden of the soul than the rose can be in the gardens of earth.
2. Whatever there may be of beauty in the material world, Jesus Christ possesses all that in the spiritual world - in a tenfold degree.
3. He takes the first place as the fairest among ten thousand.
4. He is the sun, and all others are the stars; the heavens and the day are dark in comparison with Him, for the King in His beauty transcends all. "I am the rose of Sharon."
5. This was the best and rarest of roses, but Jesus exceeds anything unusual on this earth.
6. Jesus is not "the rose" alone, He is "the rose of Sharon," just as He calls His righteousness "gold," and then adds, "the gold of Ophir"--the best of the best.
7. He is positively lovely, and superlatively the loveliest.
8. There is variety in His charms.
9. The rose is delightful to the eye, and its scent is pleasant and refreshing; so each of the senses of the soul, whether it is the taste or feeling, the hearing, the sight, or the spiritual smell, finds appropriate gratification in Jesus.
10. Even the recollection of His love is sweet.
11. Take the rose of Sharon, and pull it leaf from leaf, and lay the leaves in a jar of memory, and you shall find each leaf fragrant long afterwards, filling the house with perfume.
12. Christ satisfies the highest taste of the most educated spirit to the very full.
13. The greatest amateur in perfumes is quite satisfied with the rose: and when the soul has arrived at her highest pitch of true taste, she shall still be content with Christ, more importantly, she shall be the better able to appreciate Him.
14. Heaven itself possesses nothing which excels the rose of Sharon.
15. What emblem can fully set forth His beauty?
16. Human dialogue and earth-born things fail to tell of Him.
17. Earth's choicest gems co-mingled, ineffectively picture His abounding preciousness.

Every day, I admire the glory of God as I look out the window; the birds, changing trees, garden, the sky, moon and stars; the sunrises and sunsets, my son...I want His mercy and because of that, I have learned to value the light that He shines into the darkness of my mind. I have learned to seek the light of His words in the Book and let that light shine on my pathway, illuminating the difficult times in my life and shining before me at all times - as a reminder that God is never the author of confusion and God is always good to us even when it seems so bad. His beauty abounds - EVERYWHERE!

You ‘Brighten the Corner where YOU are.' God loves you and so do I.

Blessed rose, bloom in my heart for ever! Matthew Henry

Deborah