A Rose is a Rose

A Rose is a Rose

By:

Karen C. Davis-Solomon

What do wild gourd, tropical sensitive plant and pine cone roses have in common? Deciduous to deserts and farmland, tropical America and Australia and forests, one would think they share no commonality but would be incorrect. Wild gourd grows just as its name suggests, wildly along the ground in deserts and along roadsides or on outskirts of fields. As any gourd does, it vines along but produces a fair lily much like the fragrant lilies of Easter and spring time. However, this graceful blossom is anything but fragrant. Its noxious scent is reminiscent of rotten onions. My Pop pointed this contradictory plant out to me on a “walkabout” when I was about twelve years old. “Everything is not as it seems,” he commented.

Ironically, the foulest part of ‘buffalo gourds’ has proven to be quite valuable to humans. As a natural insecticide, the gourd plant is grown along crops as a distraction to harmful insects, because it is less harmful to beneficial bugs and ground water. The same putrid smelling substance has been found to hinder growth of certain cancerous tumors. Its seeds may also be roasted and eaten.

When I was six, he and my mother took me to Hawaii. I saw splendid sights such as a mountain shaped like a “sleeping giant” and wonderful “plastic” plants. I was completely transfixed and mildly obsessed with looking at the ground where ever I trod after my Pop showed me the Magic Plant. “Touch it,” he coaxed as I bent over the tiny fern-like grass beneath my feet. It promptly curled up! Even the Plumeria, in its entire fragrant splendor did not hold a candle to that tiny magical groundcover!

My newest discovery is pine roses. Truly, little roses which seemed to have been carved from wood and strewn about by Forest Folk and land on the ground after the Ponderosa and Cedar Trees shake their tresses. Their scientific description does little to diminish their charm as they lay strewn about like forest confetti. Actually, the top part of a Deodar Pinecone, their name means Timber of the Gods and they happen when the pinecone falls to earth and breaks apart.

            Holding my pine rose in palm of my hand, I am reminded of those earlier memories and their subtle lessons to “look for the magic” and “not all is as it seems.” God in all His faithful mercy and goodness may seem at times to allow trials in our life. Those trials give way to blessings of strength and wisdom. Similarly, a shining jewel is not always the reputable venture we believe it to be. Life sends us contradicting situations at times, so we must trust our Creator and seek His guidance in everything we do. And we can be sure that Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)