Look at the roses!

While we were in Switzerland, I received many letters from a sister who I really like and appreciate. Each of these letters contained extremely gloomy images. She seemed to be preoccupied with everything that was unpleasant.

Soon after receiving these letters, I prayed to the Lord to help her break free from this dark mentality. That same night, I had a dream three times in a row:

I was walking through a beautiful garden and Sister Martha was walking beside me. As soon as she entered the garden, I said: "Martha, look at this beautiful garden! Here, the lilies, roses and carnations!" "Yes," she said, looking up and smiling. Shortly afterwards, I wondered where she was. I looked at the lilies, roses and carnations, but she wasn't there. She had gone to another part of the garden and reached for a thistle. Then she scratched her hands on the thorny bushes. She said she had hurt her hands and asked, "Why do they have so many thistles and thorny bushes in the garden? Why don't they pull them out?"

Then a handsome man came up to us and said: "Pick roses, lilies and carnations; don't pay attention to the thorny bushes, just stay away from them!" Then I woke up. When I fell asleep again, the dream repeated itself. I dreamed the same thing three times. Finally, I couldn't sleep any more and got up to write to Sister Martha about my dream.

I wrote: God does not want to occupy you with everything unpleasant; he wants to show you his wonderful works and his purity, his incomparable love, his power, so that you are amazed at the beauties of God's nature. This dream, I explained, illustrates exactly your situation. You are staying on the dark side, talking about things that do not shed light or bring joy into your life.

But if you focus your thoughts on God, you will find enough roses, carnations and lilies in God's garden of love that you will no longer need to worry about the thorns, thistles and undergrowth. I didn't even notice the negative things because I enjoyed the flowers and the beauty of the garden.

That's what it's all about, brothers: We want to be involved with encouraging things, with the new country where they want to welcome us. We don't want to be citizens in this world, but up there. That is why it is worth thinking about what kind of character we need in order to be allowed to become inhabitants of this better world and companions of God's saints in heaven.

The penny dropped for Sister Martha and her soul was freed from its state of discouragement. I would like to prevent Satan from casting his dark shadow on your path. Come out of the shadows! The man on Golgotha illuminates your path with his light of love and dispels the darkness. He can and wants to do this. For he is Lord of all. Someone has shrouded you in his light; it is Jesus Christ.

The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, page 77

Source: Hoffnung-Weltweit e.V.