God sent me to announce the year of his grace—
a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—
and to comfort all who mourn,
To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion,
give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes,
Messages of joy instead of news of doom,
a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.
Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness”
planted by God to display his glory.
~Isaiah 61:2-3 (Message)
The Rose of Sharon … the greatest rose of all.
Indeed!
Beautiful shot!
BTW..I stopped my In Search of Beauty because there wasn’t enough interest. I do appreciate your intentions to link up. I have an On Your Heart Tuesday blog hop if you’d like to link to that. It opens on Mondays at 6pm and is open till Friday.
So that’s why I couldn’t find the linky-doodle thingie. There are times when we just have to let go of some things for whatever reason to make room for new. Right?
Your roses are incredible!!! Thank you for sharing them.
Thanks, Nancy. This was a heavy (as in weight) bouquet! The managing partner of one of the offices my husband is connected with gives them to the wives of his management team. He’s not even my husband’s boss since my husband is in compliance–but considers him indispensable. He’s a wonderful and gracious man.
That’s generous of him…
That passage from Isaiah is one of my all-time favorites.
I sent you a message on Facebook–for some reason my site is eating your messages 🙁 They did show up in my blogger feed, though, so I knew you stopped by to say hi!
Mine, too. And I read these words from the Message with new eyes–stopped to chew on every line.
I had some of that happen on Blogger when I was there. Then the messages would all come through at once.
Beautiful. Joy instead of doom. Praise instead of languid. Thank you for sharing, as you mourn, how the Lord cares for your needs and gives you roses instead of ashes. Blessings to you!
Ashes make a good fertilizer, yes?
Beautiful flowers … and Isaiah’s words!
So much in those few words. Thanks for coming by, Julee Ann.
Beautiful roses and love Isaiah’s words.
🙂
How lovely Sandy – a magnificent bouquet in exchange for ashes. A beautiful gift.
A great exchange!
Oh! Oh my! What beautiful scripture. This touched my heart so deeply
A bouquet of roses, messages of joy, and a praising heart. What a wonderful thing to offer: to us from God; from us to others.
This gave me joy. Thanks for that. I needed some joy. I need to be able to give joy, roses, and praises so that everyone will know what an awesome God I serve.
Joy to you, Janet! I’m so glad this touched you.
Thank you for this, Sandy. This is very meaningful for me. Our family members each placed a rose and the congregation added rose petals at the memorial for my brother-in-law. There were so many beautiful roses. Perhaps I can show some of them on my blog and link to yours, if you don’t mind???
That’s beautiful, Carol. So meaningful. Yes, do share. And I never mind you linking. 🙂
Right among my favorite verses… and most lovely, lovely roses…
🙂 🙂