For my daughter Jennifer, on the day of her wedding

I love growing roses; I have planted a specific variety entirely for their fragrance, particularly those with the sweetest fragrance.  With the right timing when pruning, you can schedule your roses to bloom on almost the exact day you desire.  So I began the pruning and timing process four weeks ago…with a little help from the weather I have had roses right up to mid November…but this year, as we’ve had the warmest fall on record, I was able to time my roses to bloom for this weekend…for all our guests to enjoy. 

        Each morning I would check them, water them and then set back and just watch them grow…it is a satisfaction I cannot describe.  Then two weeks ago as I walked out early one morning to enjoy my roses, I found that every one of them had been eaten by deer.  My first response was one of utter disappointment.  My second response was to find my rifle!

        Sometimes, or most often, no matter how hard you try or how well you plan, the unexpected seems to just happen. Jennifer and Jared, you will not be able to live off the coat tails of love for long…you will need a reservoir of relentless, passionate, perseverance.  But what will make your union strong, romantic, and inviting, will be the fragrance—that sweet smelling savor that right now emanates from each of your separate lives—together, you have the potential to draw many—perhaps more than you can possibly imagine, to the sweet fragrant life that is found in your Lord and Savior Jesus.

        Just as honey bees are attracted to roses, so many will be attracted to the fragrance of your lives—a fragrance that you both will enjoy and a fragrance that can help satisfy the longings of many lonely and empty hearts…

        In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he writes, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling fragrance.”

What a beautiful verse!  Fragrance and love are inseparable—but notice what is behind the production of the fragrance:

        Jesus gave Himself for us—

        As a sacrifice to His Father—

        A sweetsmelling Fragrance!

Every summer I have enjoyed my roses, but this summer after coming home from six weeks of travel, I found not one rose in bloom  Roses, especially the fragrant kind, do not grow well without pruning, water, and care—

        Jen, last week while helping you deliver one of your paintings to a gallery, an older woman to whom the painting was for, said to you, “You know honey, if you are going to make your marriage work, you’re going to have to give up your life for your man…this is just the way it is…” she said with a smile.  Often God speaks to us during those casual encounters.  I had no doubt that this was one of them.  Jared and Jennifer, your life has already begun to produce a sweet fragrance—for it to continue, you will both need to give up your lives to each other—then you will attract many with your sweet fragrance, and many will be able attracted to your God.