Grown with loving care by dear friends in Clarksville, Tennessee, cut at maturity and joined with other divine dancers, presented to us on Sunday peeking from a glass vase, this rose is an expression of the divine.
Beautiful as this rose is, for a time she was lost among her many stunning sisters. Like each of us, the divine is often hard to spot amidst a crowd. And the divine spirit can be even harder to identify when it is hidden by bloody bandages, wrapped in wrinkled skin, or is lurking deep beneath a face contorted by anger.
The divine is easy to encounter when there is an obvious match between beauty within and beauty without. There is a bright similarity and a human difference between a dancer twirling like a flower and a flower spreading her petals like a dancer. Yet, sacred eyes can identify the divine in both.
What about the challenge of the divine that is hidden? When pink turns gray and posture displays the tragedy of alcoholism, our temptation is to pass judgment. How could the divine live in a slumped over "drunk?" 
Love calls us to search for the divine in the dark places as well as the bright. And, Love calls us also to restore her light by reaching out to the saddest and most wounded among us.
Today, we will have the opportunity to reach out with Love. How will you invite Love into you life? How will she express herself in your day?
-Erie Chapman
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