I finally planted some roses this year. I had my stepmom and my daughter both give me a pink rose bush for Mothers Day. I planted them both side by side in my front yard.

They bloomed beautifully all summer and then fall came here in Wisconsin. We have had had two frosts in the last two weeks. I looked at my rose bushes yesterday and there was still a new rose starting to bloom! It proved to me that Hope has no expiration date. I can hope and have faith for anything God desires. I can have faith to believe in that hope, because Jesus is the same yesterday, and today. 

That poor little rose had to break through the dirt, grow in the sunlight, and bloom in the frost! And I thought I had it bad. Anyway, that rose got me to thinking…

• It’s not really dead, even if it looks like it.
• It looks different going dormant to being in full bloom.
• It was still a rose, even in the winter.
• In Spring it would grow back, stronger and more plentiful than last year.
• God designed it as a rose, and after He had created everything He said, “It is GOOD!”

What would happen if I applied those questions to my life?

• My Spiritual connection with God isn’t dead, now matter what things look like or how I feel about it. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
• I will have seasons in my life, just like the weather. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV
• I am still a Child of God, even in the quiet times. “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”2 Corinthians 6:18NKJV
• The Lord is my Husband, For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.” Isaiah 54:5 
• God will restore everything I have lost to the enemy.  “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
  The crawling locust,
  The consuming locust,
  And the chewing locust,
  My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
  And praise the name of the Lord your God,
  Who has dealt wondrously with you;
  And My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel:
  I am the Lord your God
  And there is no other.
  My people shall never be put to shame.” Joel 2: 25-27
• I am called to be a child of the King, and no-one or nothing can take that away from me. “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-38 NKJV