Creation: Grace in a Little Red Rose

Grace (definition):

The free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

8 years ago, when I moved from my rented townhouse in a city (City #1) 200 miles away to join my husband in City #2, I took my many pots of flowering plants (mainly roses) with me.

But there were two little red rose plants that I couldn’t take with me. They were not in containers, but grew in the ground of the townhouse’s back patio. I hadn’t planted them — the roses were already there when I’d first moved into the townhouse.

I was in anguish about abandoning the two red roses — to certain death, because the new corporate owner of the townhouse meant to tear down the entire complex of cottages and townhouses to build condominiums instead. I even tried to dig the roses out with a shovel, but their roots went too deep.

And so, on moving day, I whispered my regrets and bade the little red roses goodbye.

Two years went by….

One spring, I noticed a new shoot growing inside a large pot of mauve-colored roses in the garden of my “new” home in City #2. To my surprise, the shoot grew leaves and buds, and the buds blossomed. It’s the little red rose I had abandoned!

I thought it was rather odd because in all the 14 years in the townhouse, although I had pots next to the red roses in the ground, they had never propagated inside any of the pots. But then, what other explanation could there be, other than that a pip from the old red rose must have fallen into the mauve rose-pot, and took two years to root and grow a shoot?

However the self-propagation had happened, I was overjoyed to see the little red rose. It lives!!!

The next spring, something even more remarkable happened.

The red rose shot up in another pot several feet from the first pot!

And then, another red rose shoot sprouted in yet another pot that was separated from the first two pots by a brick-paved garden path!

And then, red rose shoots sprouted from the ground between the pots!

By spring of last year, 2013, the little red rose had miraculously propagated itself in SIX places:

• In the large pot of mauve-colored roses (#1).
• In a pot of salmon-colored roses 2 feet away (#2).
• Across a brick path (see composite pic below) to yet another pot of pink-colored roses (#3).
• Sprouting from the ground (#4).
• In yet another pot (#5).
• Across the brick path again to a pot of yellow-colored roses (#6).

Click pic to enlarge

This year, when Spring arrived, I felt a bit wistful, convinced that the miracle of the little red rose surely had ended.

Do you see the end of the brick path in the picture (r) above ending in steps to my house’s front door?

Right next to the steps in front of the bay window is a large pot of yellow roses. I had bought the rose and the pot AFTER I had moved to city #2. Here’s a pic:

One morning in April, I noticed that the yellow rose had sprouted a new shoot from its woody base.

The green shoot grew and grew. Then buds appeared. Then the buds grew bigger . . . and blossomed.

It’s the little red rose!

As you can see in the pics below, the little red rose grew OUT OF THE BASE of the yellow rose.

Can any horticulturalist explain this?

I now know I will always have the little red rose with me, for as long as I live.

Praise God!

~Eowyn