Winter Roses

It's rather dreary looking in Kansas just now. It has been dreary looking for a long time. I don't usually mind winter, but this one drags on. Winter has brought more cold and drab colors than I remember for awhile. Then I wonder if it's just my mood.

When I scanned the colors of the day from the back door yesterday, I intentionally tried to note the colors: "mud clump brown", "winter day gray", "dead veg tan" and "melancholy muted earth". The conclusion was simply "drab". Yet as I pulled open the curtains in our room this afternoon hoping to draw in more light, I noticed the roses just below the window which have long since dried and frozen. I have been in need of color, but I'm in more need of a reminder of hope. The roses are in some way a color picture of that hope. What I know and believe about hope is set, but today, the color reminder was a bright encouragement!

"For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it."
Romans 8:24,25

Since she will laugh in April's face 
No matter how he rains or blows --
Then O that I wild April were,
To play with laughing Rose.

(from Laughing Rose by W.H. Davies)