When my marriage of 29 years ended in divorce, all I could think to do was plant flowers. I planted a hedge of red roses next to road in front of the house.

I watched those roses through the year. During the summer the roses were beautiful, and bright red. They bloomed all through the fall. By December, though, the flowers had gone; the stems were dry and bare. In February I pruned the stems and waited for Spring to bring new growth. By June, the roses bloomed again.

As I looked at them, I thought, “Wow. Look at that. How did those dry sticks manage to suck up something from the ground and create those magnificent roses?” I knew that God did that, and I knew that what the roses had sucked up out of the earth was horse manure, because I put it there!

Isn’t that just the way of the Lord? He takes the crap of our lives, and grows roses in it.