THE ROSE!        GP 235   3/73

         1. I dreamt we were living on a farm, sort of like the Ranch. I was walking across one of the fields when I noticed this beautiful bush growing right alongside the road with this lovely rose overhanging the road. It was right at the end of the limb over the busy road & it was getting all dusty & dirty from passing cars. I thought, "I'd better go down there & pick that beautiful rose & take it home or one of those cars will hit it & ruin it!"
         2. So I climbed the fence & crossed the road & picked it & jumped back over the fence again, & as I was walking across the field with the rose in my hand, some grouchy, gruff old farmer came roaring along on his tractor. When he saw me walking along with the rose in my hand he yelled out real loud, sort of grumbly & disgruntled & he said, "Imagine that!"--& somehow I knew he was referring to Mom who was up in the house: "She says I can't use this road any more, that this land belongs to YOU now!"--And I just smiled & said, "Well, funny things do happen!" It's like I knew it did, that we owned the place now, but I didn't want to make him any madder, so I walked on up to the ranch house, sort of chuckling & happy about it--thinking how the Ranch was ours now.
         3. I puttered around till I found a nice little pot with some soil in it & I planted the rose in it. I watered it & took it into the house & showed it proudly to Mom & said, "Look, isn't that nice?"--And she said, "Yes, that's nice!" & smiled like she was real pleased that I'd saved this little rose. When I got it home all nice & cozy in the pot, it seemed to be very contented & happy.
         4. It's kind of like our Work. It's a little story the kids would understand. They know they're true & they know they could happen, 'cause with children ANYTHING can happen. They believe anything God says! Only when some people grow up they don't believe anything any more, like the old mean 10:36ers! But the children all think they're possible & nothing's impossible, & so they believe my funny little tales.
         5. The road is the old highway of life that runs through God's Kingdom. The FARM is really God's KINGDOM & the World doesn't know we own it, but we do!--And it makes them MAD to TELL them that! And the little rose, of course, is every beautiful soul along the highway that we need to rescue from all the dirt & the raging winds & the mean old drunken drivers!--And we gotta take them home & plant them in a new habitat in a safe little pot in the Lord's House with the Family.--Amen? YOU were a rose contaminated by the System, so I took you home & cleaned you up & replanted you in a safer spot. The System was going to get you sooner or later, so I plucked you!--Aren't you glad? Hallelujah!--ILY! You're my little Rose!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family