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I can’t count the number of friends whose lives are really complicated right now. I’m included in that number. So many troubles are weighing heavy on our hearts. But through it all, God is still there and still in charge.

This year, he gave me a little surprise again. Several weeks ago, I noticed New Dawn rose buds in the window!

The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.

The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.

New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.

New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.

3 Rose New Dawn
My kitchen window is on the second floor and I don’t have planters in the windows. The patio isn’t finished, the paint is peeling, lots of things are falling apart.

The patio is still unfinished.

The patio is still unfinished.

Due to disability, I had to let a lot of things go, such as pruning and training the New Dawn rose bush. Just when it was getting to a good age to work with, my spine was collapsing so there were a half dozen years that disappeared.

The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.

The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.

Those were the thorn years. Lots of tangles and brambles.

We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.

We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.

Even then, good things keep growing. Never forget that… GOOD THINGS KEEP GROWING.

Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!

Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!

All the way up to my kitchen window, the rose bush reached.
8 Rose New Dawn
The roses didn’t care that the paint was peeling.
9 Rose New Dawn
10 Rose New Dawn

Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?

Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?

Yes, God is aware. He knows what we need. And all those little buds lined up in my window to say Good Things Keep Growing.
12 Rose New Dawn buds
The roses are blooming now. But the weight of them is pulling the vine over.
13 Rose New Dawn blooming
I put three nails and a loose wire up to hold the roses up so I can see them from the kitchen again.
14 Rose New Dawn blooming
Roses in the window!
15 Rose New Dawn blooming
And how fitting that the rose is called New Dawn. Even without a window box of nourishing dirt, 20 feet from the ground, never stopping, the roses are peeking in my window to remind me Good Things Keep Growing.

Good things keep growing.

Good things keep growing.

And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Is 58:11