The Redeemed Rose

Have you ever had a day that goes something like this: You are trying to leave for work and the car won’t start despite your efforts to jump it. Great, you probably need a new battery (or worse!) and the bank account is already low. Next, you get a phone call from a loved one saying they’ve just been diagnosed with a severe illness. That afternoon, you receive a large, unexpected bill in the mail and you wonder how you’re ever going to pay it. Then for the cherry on top, you get a scathing message from a friend (or so you thought) about something you did last week that offended them. Now your relationship is in conflict but you don’t know when you will have the time or be in the right frame of mind to to deal with it. I am a homeschooling mom of 8 (10 years old and under) so for me, that kind of a day would look something like this: I am trying to start school after an already stressful late start to the day and pulling teeth to get the kids to finish their chores. From the oth...

There are not many weddings in winter. In fact, June is famously known as the “wedding month”, with the highest percentage of couples getting hitched. The winter months typically have the fewest amount of weddings, with January being the lowest. If you really want to shock people, send out a Save the Date card with a January time stamp and they’ll say, “Who gets married in January?!!”. In most climates, winter is cold, the flowers are dead (except from your local florist), and no one is expecting a wedding in winter.  The Bible also talks about a wedding that will come when we least expect it. Revelation calls it the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  “‘Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are i...