“like a rose”

Photographed by Garrett Randolph

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

-Isaiah 53:7

When I was a young child, I attended Sunday night services at church with my family. Being in the house of the Lord truly was home for me. I remember sitting in those pews at night, feeling absolute peace, just drawing in my coloring books and writing tiny notes on lined paper. Every once in a while, I would look around at all the people worshipping God so passionately and personally. Mom and another woman I was close with were rarely on key, but their desperation and awe made them sound the most beautiful to me. My mind did not quite understand what worship was at the time, but my soul knew it was right and my spirit was at rest. Over the past decade, the Holy Spirit has reminded me of certain songs from that time, particularly ones that were transformative for me. I would be sitting there drawing and then next thing I knew, I was crying at the thought of Jesus. Looking back, I realize now that I was encountering God. The Holy Spirit was revealing Jesus Christ to me. This week, a lyric surfaced upon my heart from the song “Above All”. This particular phase always gripped me:

“Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all”

As a small child, I remember seeing a vision of a delicate, innocent rose being trampled under foot to a point where it was unrecognizable and completely unseen for its true beauty. It’s petals were torn and the red pigment was like blood pressed into the pavement. Something so precious was destroyed with no compassion. I was undone as a young girl at the revelation of Jesus’ purity while also grieving the impact of my sin upon the God that has loved me so well.

In Isaiah 53 we read that Jesus is the Lamb of God that was slaughtered for us— “the rose” that was brutally trampled on. When I think of The Lamb as an adult, I am overtaken with the same reverence, brokenness, and fear of God that I did as a child when I sang about Jesus, the rose. It is a gut-wrenching sense of grief and thankfulness, stripping me of any pride of my own goodness or independence from His Love. In the midst of being beaten, slapped, spit at, tortured, and murdered, the Son of God demonstrated love all the way through the end. When I picture Jesus—so humble, gentle, pure and undefiled— willingly dying for me when I was not just in need, but was actually in the wrong… how could any glory go to me? How could any beauty be attributed to anything but Him? How could anyone define Love outside of the sacrificial Lamb of God? Something really powerful happens when the Holy Spirit brings us revelation about the deep Love of Jesus Christ through His willing death and powerful resurrection:

repentence | reverence | reunion

Oh Lord, help us to remember the compassion and mercies we have received in Jesus! Help us to remember the power of Your selfless Love that has carried us back into the arms of our Father. Thank you for placing Your Blood over the doorposts of our hearts, declaring: REDEEMED FOREVER. Our sin has been washed away and so has our identity as sinners. We are now Children of God that live in freedom because of what You have done, Jesus!

As believers, we must meditate upon this good news and the freshness of the gospel message every day we are alive in Him. We will always be dependent upon the Blood of the Lamb, fully resting in what He has done. We have a continual opportunity to enthrone The Lamb within our hearts—to cherish Him, cling close to His heart, and honor Him as Lord. For there truly is a throne in our hearts. Who is sitting there? What is placed there? Is the Lamb of God cast to the side, watching a lesser lover that never died for us receive all our affections? Or is Jesus reigning in our lives as the Lover of our souls?

Prayer: Oh Holy Spirit, take me to the core of who I am and let me set Jesus upon the throne—the throne only He is worthy of. I lay my robes upon the ground and cast my crown at Your feet, Lord. I will break every jar of precious devotion I have to honor You, my Redeemer and my Love! Come be seated on the highest place, for only You are the King of my Heart. Be lifted high, that all may see:

He is risen.

Jesus has my whole heart.

The Lamb of God is worthy.

The most beautiful Rose is on display.

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.”

-Revelation 5:11-14