When Your Roses Become a Snack for Goats

A few weeks ago, a gate was left open. Children were visiting who did not understand the significance of gates when goats are on the farm.

And so, a goat visited the back yard--and the back deck.

She ate down my beautiful yellow rose bush to nothing but a few stems and thorns.

Yum! What a luscious snack!

I don't understand why she didn't eat the red and white petunias which were on either side of the roses, but I decided to be thankful. At least she didn't eat those AND my yellow roses.

Just my beautiful roses.

And around the same time, the pigs got into the back yard and ate down the comfrey plant, which is good for asthma and many other uses and which I had just brought back from my sister-in-law in PA and Rose had planted by our back door step. They ate every bit, clear to the root. 

They even dug up the root!

And the cow got out and ate my irises by the front porch.

This picture is before they were eaten.

These are my mom's irises at her place in Missouri.
No goats, no pigs, no cow. They bloom profusely. I wandered around and around those irises a few months ago, pulling weeds and taking a picture.

Here were her roses, too. 

Thriving lushly. 

No murderous animals to eat them live. 

I struggle to have the heart to grow roses or irises or anything at all, even a garden. 

It seems the only thing that will grow safely around here is weeds--and beets with one or two foot high greens with a big staple through the tiny root!

But we still try. 

Even though the poor rosebush disappeared I know not where, the petunias are still blooming at least, some beets are growing, some morning glories are thriving, some lettuce is ready for salads,
a few flowers in hanging baskets are still blooming on our front porch,
and some blue chicory (one of my favorite flowers) is blooming surprisingly in our yard.

So when God takes the beautiful yellow roses from my life, I will look for the blue chicory.

Why is there a lump in my throat and a hurt in my heart?

It is not just about yellow roses. 

Perhaps you understand.

And when He allows something good and healing like comfrey to be eaten up and yanked clear out clear down to the root,

it might look dead and hopeless, but let me tell you something. 

Someone replanted the yanked up comfrey root, and watered it and tended it.

And it is growing back all over again.

Because that is what God does. 

He resurrects the dead, eaten things in our lives. 

And He took my roses, but He gave me hundreds of morning glories this year.

He took my yellow roses that I chose and bought myself, and gave me blue chicory that I don't remember ever seeing before this year.

He gave me umpteen yellow sunflowers. 

I must not get stuck on wanting my yellow roses.

I must surrender all my yellow roses to God and let Him give me instead His choice of beauty for ashes, His choice of cheer and comfort.
It just might come from a blue flower that I might not have appreciated as much as I do this year!

It might come from a person whom I overlooked, or a fellowship that was beneath my expectations.

God's chicory is every bit as beautiful as my yellow roses!