PAPER ROSES

This Ozark Farm chick was shakin' like a fifty cent ladder on gutter cleanin' day when I listened to the weather and heard the frost warnins. When I turned in late last night it was thirty seven degrees and droppin'. My heart sank like a mobsters victim. Oh, my beautiful roses had buds, all my lovely perennials had pushed their heads through the earth. I'm a tad high strung and wound tighter that a three day clock but late last night....I would'a made a pressure cooker look calm.

At thirty one degrees the Ponderosa's frost holler is was colder than a tick on a Mississippi coon hound on a Montana morning. The daylilies foliage blackened bowin' their heads to the earth, my spirit plummeted lower than a snake full of buckshot. Checkin' the curly leaves on my roses. my mind was transported to a science project in our Special Ed. classroom. 'Loved those kiddos and I'd fight tigers in the dark with a switch for 'em unlike their classmates, Middle Schoolers are empathy challenged. 'Just sayin'.........

Each year we would help our very special students participate in the Middle School Science Fair. We had many projects over the years. Little Miss Feisty kept eatin' her atom molecules constructed with Skittles. Mr. I Believe I Can Fly grew colorful salt crystals but the one that really touched my heart was a little sweetheart I'll call Lilly Pie.

Lilly Pie was a 'special' student in the fifth grade. She lived with her mother, little sister and her Mom's boyfriend. Lilly lived in a dysfunctional home at best and had been showin' definite signs of sexual abuse. When Social Services confirmed the situation Lilly's mother was told that she could not have the girls in the house if the boyfriend stayed. Miss Pie's mother told this tender~hearted ten year old girl, "well somebody's gotta leave and it's not gonna be 'him'." 'Broke my heart into a thousand pieces. She was moved into her single grandfathers house. Doesn't that just frost your ankles?

Sweeter than a meal of biscuits and chocolate gravy served with southern sweet tea, this little lady approached us with her Science Fair idea. Roses!!! Woohoo, bestow my heart. Lilly Pie wanted to make a presentation on plantin' and growin' roses. She expressed the desire to present her project in book form. She chose plain old pink copy paper for the pages. Lilly then used the computer to find information and pictures that she would use for her book simply titled 'Roses'.

We helped Lilly glue the information on the pages along with the pictures she'd chosen with good old rubber cement. After everything had dried we used a binder to bind her project together. Simple supplies, nothin' special. Just a little copy paper, printer ink and some rubber cement. We left the project in Lilly Pies cubby in the classroom and locked the door behind us.

I've experienced several supernatural unexplainable remarkable acts of God in my lifetime but this one was for Lilly Pie. The next mornin' as we were thumbin' though Miss Pie's project the scent of roses arose from the pages. We passed the book around to our coworkers and the more the book was handled the stronger the scent became. I went back and sniffed the copy paper which smelled like plain old paper. I checked the rubber cement and it reeked of...well...rubber cement. Heck, I even checked the printer ink. The only explanation I could come up with it that God wanted to make Lilly's project as special as her.

Isn't that just like our Heavenly Father? He takes our brokenness and turns it into something whole and special. He raises us up from that bottomless pit just when we think there is no hope into life abundantly. He guides us to the light when lost in darkness. He takes a young girl's simple project and makes it stand out from the others. That rose scent lasted through the Science Fair and was still strong when we sent it home.

In 1993, Olive Marie Osmond sang the popular song written by Fred Spielman and Janice Torre that was originally Anita Bryant's hit in 1960. Marie's version topped the country charts then crossed over to pop and easy listenin'. I know that Miss Lilly Pie or I will never ever forget the science project that was simply made of 'Paper Roses!!!

'Just thinkin' 'bout it makes me happier than a monkey with a peanut machine!



(These pictures are from my rose garden last summer)