Dry Roots to Roses

Remington is 16 years old. He’s a German Shorthaired Pointer, and is a very healthy and happy senior dog! If you were to see him running though our vineyard and grove, you would probably think he was about 6 years old. There was a time when I didn’t think Remington would make it to the ripe old age of 16. His puppy years were full of death and destruction!

When Remington was a puppy he was into everything, and I mean everything! Thankfully, he outgrew that stage and is the best dog one could ever ask for! He had lots of friends in our yard; birds, rabbits, squirrels, mice, snakes and lizards, but those friendships never lasted long and Remington would be sad and bored.

“Remington!” I’d say to him, “If you would stop killing all your friends, you wouldn’t be so sad and bored!” But like any good puppy, he continued to kill his friends, old and new.

One sunny day when Remington had no friends left to play with, he took interest in a new rosebush that I had recently planted. He dug that rosebush up, chewed it up, and left it lying on the cement walkway with its poor tender roots exposed to the High Desert sun. By the time I found the rosebush, it was all but dead. What few leaves were still on it were shriveled and dried, and I could see where Remington’s puppy teeth used the tender stem as a chew toy. I was sure the rosebush was beyond saving, but I decided to try.

Google told me that sugar-water will boost the plant’s metabolism so it can convert sunlight to energy and absorb water and nutrients, so I placed the rosebush in a bucket of sugar-water. The bucket of sugar-water was the hospital room for my poor rosebush for the next 48 hours.  Carefully, I placed the broken rosebush in the bucket. Soon, all the dead leaves fell off, and new growth bumps began to show on the now leafless stems.  When it was time to replant the rosebush, I prepared the hole, poured the sugar-water into it, and planted the rosebush.  Unlike Remington’s other unfortunate friends, it looked like the rosebush was going to make it! It looked like Remington might live as well!

A week or two went by and the rosebush continued to mend and grow. I thoroughly enjoyed looking out my kitchen window and seeing the lovely rosebush thriving! One day however, I looked out the kitchen window to enjoy my rosebush, and it was gone! My rosebush was no where in sight! I ran out back and began searching, and finally found the rosebush near the wood pile, 1/4 acre away, partially covered in dirt, laying in the direct sun with what was left of the chewed up roots exposed! AGAIN!

I picked up the wilting rosebush and considered beating Remington with it, but decided that would be counterproductive, so I brought it back to the hospital bucket on the patio. I filled the bucket with sugar-water again, and carefully placed the rosebush inside. 48 hours later, the rosebush was not responding. The roots had been chewed down to practically nothing and the sugar-water was not enough to help it this time. But I wasn’t ready to give up on it yet.

After emptying the sugar-water from the bucket, I refilled it with a mixture of phosphorous for root development, and nitrogen for healthy growth of the leaves and stems. I placed the rosebush back in the bucket and waited another 48 hours. To my surprise, after another 48 hours the rosebush looked a little better and had some new growth bumps! It was amazing to me that this rosebush and been violently ripped from the ground, dragged around the yard, left naked in the hot sun, had its roots chewed up, not once but twice, and was still alive!

As before, I prepared the hole where I would replant the rosebush, and I poured the phosphorus and nitrogen water into the hole and gently replanted my little survivor rosebush into the ground. Again. The rosebush was not thriving, but it was trying. At least it wasn’t dying! I treated it with potassium to help it resist disease since it was in such a weak state. After a few days, I was again able to enjoy watching my little rosebush grow from my kitchen window. The rosebush had become a symbol of survival against all odds, and I loved to look out the window and see it!

One morning I poured my first cup of coffee and wandered to the window to see how my rosebush was doing, and you guessed it, it wasn’t there! It was nowhere to be seen! In my slippers and robe, I scoured the yard and found it. It had been ripped out of the ground again, and it was laying on the cement walkway! It had to have been there overnight, its roots exposed to the chilly night air! I had little hope for the rosebush this time, I mean, how much can this little rosebush take? It had been planted and uprooted too many times and this time it was out in the cold air all night! The little rosebush was a survivor, a fighter and I was not going to give up on it yet.

Back to the hospital bucket it went, this time with a mixture of calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, zinc, copper, manganese and iron, with a dash of sugar thrown in. That little rosebush sat in that hospital bucket for 72 hours before giving me any signs of life! But sure enough, by the end of day three, new little growth bumps appeared! Those bumps soon became tiny new stems and leaves. Once again, I prepared a hole for the rosebush, and carefully replanted it in the ground.

Have you ever felt like my little rosebush? Just when you find yourself in a comfortable place, firmly planted; whether planted in a new relationship, a new job, a new home or any other new season of life, you get viciously ripped out of the ground, chewed up and tossed about, eventually being left in a heap on the ground,  a quarter of an acre away, with the heat of the sun scorching your tender roots?

It’s during those times that the Lord searches for you! He will leave the 99 and search for the 1! You! He will find you and tend to your broken heart, your anxiety, your loss, your fear; He will lovingly pick you up, and replant you. Your Father in heaven will place you in the bucket of His mercy and grace and get you through that broken relationship, that divorce, that betrayal, that financial crisis, that addiction, that illness or loss. And when He has begun the healing and mending of your heart, He will prepare a place to replant you, where you can grow, blossom and bloom!

My little rosebush was uprooted, chewed up and left for dead three times. Each time, I found it, tended to its needs and replanted it. We too may be uprooted numerous times.  But our God is faithful! Consider Job who lost everything!  In Job 18:16-19, Bildad describes Job’s roots as being dried or withered.  Bildad basically says there is no hope for Job’s family tree because God is about to wipe the memory of Job from the earth, and has already removed his descendants.

But Job didn’t lose heart, in Job 19:9-10, We learn that Job’s hope, which had once sprouted up like a new tree from a stump (Job 14:7-9) had been totally uprooted. His children were all dead, his family tree all but annihilated. But Job knew, and we know, that God our Father, the lover of our soul, will continue to pursue us and bring us home.

Although Job had been dug up and spit out over and over again; many more times than my little rosebush, the Lord restored Job’s losses and gave him twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10) And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. (Job 42:12) Job’s family tree took root again, and blossomed. Job 42:13-16 tells us that “Job had seven sons and three daughters. And in all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days”.

My Study Bible reminds us that at one time or another, almost everyone has felt like Job. While going through trials and times of suffering, we are often overwhelmed by self-pity. We want an explanation for why God allows trials to happen to us. The Book of Job records the troubling questions, the terrifying doubts, and the very real anguish of a sufferer. The Book of Job can help us in the time when we are surrounded with troubles by giving us a glimpse of God’s perspective on our suffering. God is the sovereign and benevolent Creator who continues to determine the course of the universe according to His own hidden plan. Just like Job, we must learn to submit to the Almighty God and accept by faith that He has a good plan for us.

I will never forget the day I looked out my kitchen window and saw beautiful pink roses blooming for the first time! Like Job, my rosebush thrived in the latter part of its life, having survived attack after attack on its roots during its early years.

Surprisingly, Remington survived as well . . . . .