For next Sunday's New Member Service, I have to give a blurb about my symbol. So, this is what I wrote in it's original form. I had to shorten it by 30 seconds but it still maintained a lot of what I wanted to say.
When I was 32, I decided that I wanted a tattoo and I knew that it had to be meaningful and it had to be personal…after all it may be with me a while. It did not take me long to settle on the pink Queen Elizabeth rose.
First of all it carries the name of my mother, grandmother and great grandmother, which I still hope to pass to my own daughter someday.
But more importantly, it has become a symbol of love, commitment and sacrifice in my own life. For 34 years my father has grown these roses in our yard. It is not because he loves gardening (he would rather be fishing) but because he loves my mother.
For nearly 9 months of the year my mother has roses throughout her house. I recall many a day when she would awake to find he had left her new roses before going to work. At other times he would bring them in while she was cooking dinner and no matter what had happened up to that point in the day, she would smile.
He did this because of his love and commitment to her and was willing to sacrifice his time and energy to make her smile. This is the kind of love, commitment and willingness to sacrifice I hope to have in my life and a reminder also to me of the love and commitment of Christ and the sacrifice of God.
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