The People With Roses
The People with Roses
“Looks are deceptive”, “All that glitters is not gold” – these are famous sayings in the English language and sometimes it is very true. Even God does not look at our outward appearance. He looks deep into our heart. Here is a beautiful story I read which illustrates how much we can miss if we keep looking only at the outward appearance. Sometimes valuable surprises can be discovered in unlikely sources. Here’s the story:
John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t – the girl with the rose!
His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida Library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not by the words of the book, but by the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell.
With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month, the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding.
Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.
When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting – 7pm at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.”
So at 7pm he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen.
I’ll let Mr.Blanchard tell you what happened.
“A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips an chin had gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” she murmured.
Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell.
She was standing almost directly behind a girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own.
And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My finger gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.
I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”.
The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son, but the young lady in green suit who just went by, begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”
It is not difficult to understand and admire Mis.Maynell’s wisdom. The true nature of a person’s heart is seen in their response to the unattractive.
We always like to see God and experience His reality. Jesus says in Matthew 25:40 “Anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me”. Jesus lives in the forgotten. He has taken up residence in the ignored. He has made a mansion amid the ill. If we want to see God, we must go among the broken, the beaten and bruised, we will see Him there.
To see Jesus, go to the old age home, sit down beside the elderly woman, and steady her hand as they puts the spoon in her mouth. To see Jesus, go to the community hospital and ask the nurse to take you to see the one who has received no visits. To see Jesus, leave your office and go down the hall and talk to the man who is regretting his divorce and mission his children. To see Jesus… see the unattractive and forgotten.
You might say it is a test. A test to measure the depth of our character. The same kind of test Hollis Maynell used with John Blanchard. The rejected of the world wear the roses; sometimes we, like John Blanchard, have to adjust our expectations.
Had he turned his back on the unattractive, he would have missed the love of his life. If we turned our backs, we will miss even more in our lives. God Bless.
– Merilyn Jemimah Mohan.
