Literally hours before this photo was taken, this entire rose bush and each individual bloom was laying flat on the ground, not only covered, but encased in ice from a recent storm.

Have you ever looked closely at a rose? Have you noted the wonderful delicacy of each silky petal? What a marvel to me that such a fragile living thing could be held in ice, but afterwards be so perfectly and completely restored to its former beauty.

So it is with you and me as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who spoke the very first rose into existence, and he speaks new life into us with his word every day.

As his apostle wrote:

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18

Life may tend to bring us down, but God will always raise us up, especially at the last time. Never lose hope in him.