I love cutting flowers from my yard and arranging bouquets for my table. Especially fragrant roses. If I could, I’d have bouquets in every room.
The other day, I was walking by my dining room table when the beautiful fragrance from a vase of aging roses caught my attention. I had picked the English Roses from my yard almost a week prior. They were beginning to look a little worn, not as fresh looking as when first cut, and yet, the fragrance wafted through the room with a sweet strength. I picked them up and took in a deep breath of their beauty and thought it was interesting that they were actually more fragrant than when I first cut them.
Have you ever noticed that roses have a stronger fragrance after they’ve aged? They take on a different kind of beauty as their peddles become softer and more whimsical. I put the vase back on the table, and thought about how our lives parallel the aged bouquet of roses.
There are a lot of special attributes that come with aged beauty. Edges have been softened, the heart grows more pliable, and there’s a bending as the winds of life blow… the aged become a bit more whimsical and tender, and they don’t sweat the small stuff.. because they’ve learned the small stuff is of not much consequence in the big picture of life. In older age there is a new kind of beautiful. It’s a different kind of beauty than that of youth, it’s a beauty created by years of resolve, endurance and the gain of wisdom. It’s a beauty that living a lifetime of loving and being loved brings. It’s a beauty that comes from knowing true God given identity through years of trials, testing and triumphs. This aged beauty goes through the sufferings of life and cherishes the lessons those sufferings have taught.
This aged beauty is indeed, oh so fragrant.
Q-Versations 