So I know I’ve been sharing a lot about roses lately, but it’s something that God is using for me right now that has so much personal significance. And I’d like to share it with you because it’s a part of me and it also shows a unique side of God.
My story is of roses, God’s way of sprinkling beauty and showering us in gifts.
Before I was born, my mother had been trying very hard to get pregnant and was having a lot of difficulty. By the time my mother was going into labor with me, my parents were very worried. My dad began praying very hard. He is of a Catholic background and he greatly admired the saint Therese of Lisieux (Therese of the Little Flower). St. Therese was a woman who decided to commit her life completely to Jesus by the age of only fifteen when she entered the Carmelite Order as a nun. She was known for her complete love and devotion for Jesus and for what she called her little way of great love. She desired the faith of a child and compared our walks with God to flowers, that we are all flowers in God’s garden, unique yet all so beautiful. As we draw closer to the Lord we start to bloom and our petals unfold to reveal His great glory. My father made a commitment that if God granted my life to enter the world, he would name me after her. And thus I became
Shannon Rose.
As a child my father would always call me by my nickname Rosebud.
Well recently God has been revealing more of the significance that the rose holds to me. Last month I shared how we came upon the field of roses where we were literally just showered in thousands of roses. Well God has continued to sprinkle roses for me everywhere. While me and two of my friends from the squad went for a retreat up a huge mountain in Ecuador to a place called Lake Mojanda to spend time with each other and to hear from God, I stumbled upon a rose petal within a small puddle in the dirt randomly along our path. And i knew God was with us. He definitely spoke to us during that time which I will never forget. After that I kept having random experiences where i’d find roses/rose petals in the most random places where God would leave them for me to find.
Well around Christmas I got to talk with my mother which was a great conversation and filled me up so much! Gosh I love her. Well she told me about a dream she had. She said the dream was of her kneeling on the ground and i came up behind her to surprise her. I tapped her on the shoulder and said “mom it’s me”. She was thinking “how can you be here right now, I don’t understand, you can’ be here.” But I just smiled and said “no mom, I’m here”. She said she woke up believing the dream was real and she felt God’s presence so strong. Well a few days later for Christmas my family was going to church and my dad went early to save seats and pray. When my mom and sister met up with him he said “you guys Shannon is here”. My mom was so confused again. But then my dad said “look” and he pointed to the ground next to where they were sitting where there was a rose petal.
Haha God is one creative, funny Guy. I love it!
I thought maybe this was God’s message/gift for me for Ecuador because i probably wouldn’t be finding roses in Africa but I was wrong.
My latest experience was while in Malawi. Me and a few other teammates had had a very powerful conversation with our ministry host in the morning that made us question a lot and consider the level of our faith. Well later in the afternoon we went to visit a pastor at his house and right when we entered I saw a big painting of a rose on the wall. It had a bible verse with it in Chichewa, their native language, which turned out to be James 1:5 which says: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.”
It just goes to show that God pursues us individually in such a unique, intimate way.
