Rose Petals

I was going through some boxes filled with old black and white photos and other items of long ago. I came across a Bible of mine that I used in high school and college. It was old and tattered, a reflection of how I loved it. Fondly I flipped through the pages, reading notes I had written in the margins, reading verses I had underlined. Just inside the back cover I had pasted a poem. I remember it being of great comfort to me. I never forgot the poem over the years, at times reciting it to myself in times of uncertainty along life’s journey. The author is unknown. I share it with you now:

It’s just a tiny rosebud
A flower of God’s design.
I can’t unfold its petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.

If I can’t unfold the petals of
This flower of God’s design,
Then why do I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?

“But once He has made His decision, who can change His mind? Whatever He wants to do, He does. So He will do to me whatever He has planned. He controls my destiny.”
Jeremiah 23: 13-14