TABLE VIEW

Western Cape, South Africa

+27 72 615 9417

Support during business hours

https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-a-red-rose-593655/

Like a Rose | written by Philippa van Coller

Last week I was visiting an old friend I had the privilege of meeting in 2018/19. At the end of our catching-up session she likened me to a rose while praying for me, and I would like to share this with you.

I hope I get the three parts right, but I’m sure she will forgive me if I don’t… maybe this is just how I heard it. She said I am like a rose, a flower always leaving a great fragrance, but I also have thorns that will hurt you when I am being pressurised, and the thorns have “venom” that will sting you and, I am adding, possibly leave a scar.  

https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-a-red-rose-593655/
Image by Jovana Nesic

Now I don’t know about you, but a rose is not the worst thing to be likened to. How many of you still go weak at the knees if someone (especially your “person”) brings you a beautiful bunch of roses?

That to me at the time was a very big compliment, and this is why! About 4 years ago I was going through a very challenging and somewhat lonely time in my life, feeling very unworthy and unloved. Note I am saying “feeling”! Now, feelings in themselves are neither good nor evil, but they are unstable and unpredictable, and therefore they need to be managed.

I was working for a company part- time and this one day, I was at the office before anyone else. When my colleague Munsoor walked in, he said, “I knew you were here, I always know where you are, because I can smell you before I can see you”. Now one can take that as meaning “ you are using too much perfume, yuk!” So just to check,  I asked him if it was too overwhelming, to which he answered, “It’s the nicest smell, I love it”!

That afternoon, on my way home, I asked God to please never take that away from me. I asked Him to help me leave a fragrance behind wherever I go in my life. Not for me, but for those I meet. Now this is the amazing part of my story. Ever since that day, when I have a bad day, feeling down, feeling sick or when it feels like emotions want to take over my existence,  those are the days that someone would tell me how nice I smell.

Forward a couple of years, August 2022. Yes, this August past, when everything on the outside looked great, but everything back at home was falling completely apart. I went to visit my sister, and I was standing outside their gate, trying my hardest to compose myself and put on a brave face, because it was one of those very tough days. At the very moment Fermino (my brother-in-law) opened the door, out of sight of the gate, he shouted, “Oh it’s Philippa” and as he came around the corner he said to me: “I don’t even have to see you to know it’s you, I can always smell you first”. In that moment I realised God hears my cry, and He answers my call. Every time I feel like I just can’t take any more, someone tells me I smell nice, and it lifts my spirits.

When Dr. Fay likened me to a rose, I was reminded of the wonder woman movie. Wasn’t Gal Gadot just absolutely stunning in that movie? Not to mention all those Amazons, women warriors! Now those are roses that can cut and sting. There is one part in the movie I wish I could show you. It’s the part where she goes into the war zone and all the soldiers are sitting in the trenches too scared to fight, in fact they all looked defeated. There and then she decides she is going to fight, even if she has to do it alone, because there are lives at stake. The rest is history.

At the beginning of the second Wonder Woman movie,  she is still a little girl, and starts to compete with the Amazon women in a warrior competition. Brave little girl, but she was completely fearless. She was much younger than her competitors but outruns them for the first and second and almost the third circuit of the track; she is ahead (although they are gaining ground and coming closer to her) but then she looks back and, in that moment, she doesn’t see the branch in front of her and she is knocked off her horse and falls to the ground. Needless to say, she doesn’t win because looking behind her causes her to lose her momentum, even though she finishes the race. So many lessons to be learnt in only those two scenes in the movie.

My encouragement to you! You are like a rose, and there is a warrior inside of you. Leave a fragrance wherever you go and make a difference. Don’t look back and never stop believing in yourself, and when the days get rough, remember the promises of the one who created you! His plans for you are not to harm you, but to give you hope and a good outcome.

You are loved!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *