sky to heaven - the invisible life.

A rose can be many things, and not just a rose. A rose can be food for the cow or deer. A rose can be a comfortable home for a bug. A rose can be a resting place for a bird. A rose can be a gift of love for a girl, or a lesson of beauty for a painter. A rose may simply be a place for the sun to reflect its light. The purpose of a rose may be one of these, or all of these. The purposes of a rose can be too many for man alone to know. Only God may know the infinite purposes of a rose.

And if one simple rose can have so many purposes, then what of a human being?

But, you may reply, perhaps the rose has no purpose at all. It may be that if there were no roses in the universe, the deer and cows would still have food to eat. The bugs may find other homes to live in, and the birds other places of rest. Girls will receive other gifts, and painters will paint other things, and the sun will still shine on the earth. It may be that if there were no roses in the universe, the universe would still continue without great loss or sorrow. So it may be that the rose has no purpose. And it may be that neither a rose, nor a human being, has any purpose at all.

But do you really believe that? I, for one, do not. I believe that without the rose, the universe would be much less than it is. There would be one less home, one less beauty, one less color, one less gift for all of us. And as it is with the rose, so it is with a human being. A garden without a rose, an earth without a human being. Take away a rose, and the forest or garden will be the less for it; take away a human being, and a community will have lost.

There are also those who believe that there is only one purpose in life - survival. But the purpose of a rose cannot only be to survive. If it were, all roses in the end would fail by that measure, because all roses do die. For survival is merely the means to fulfill a greater end; it is not an end in itself. Those who believe only in survival, do not know why they live -they only live in order not to die. They may have sought for an answer to the purpose of life, and having not found one, given up the search for it - and so they settled for the purpose of survival. And life becomes a battle which must inevitably, one day, be lost.

A rose which thinks “I have no purpose at all,” knows not what it is. And a rose which thinks, “I just want to survive,” is so much less than it can be. Neither rose sees the comfort and the life they provide to the bug, the happiness and meaning they bring to the girl, or the beauty they can teach the painter. Neither rose knows the great gifts it has received from others, and the great gifts that they give to others. Neither rose is truly aware of how its life is connected to the web of life around it; they know not their true place, true powers, true beauty, true value, and true selves. And so it is with a human being who believes they have no purpose, or believes their only purpose is survival. They will not know happiness or peace, and they will always be less than they can be. And they will suffer for not knowing their own purposes. They will feel unfulfilled, because they are unfulfilled.

If you ask a rose, “What is your purpose?” Lost and poor is the rose that answers, “I don’t know.” So when another asks you, “What is your purpose?” Better that your answer be, “I don’t know – but I am searching for it.” If you do not know your purpose, find it – everything depends on it. For if you do not know the purpose of your life, then your life will be as if it has no purpose. Your purpose now may be to discover your purpose or purposes. Perhaps you are already fulfilling some of them now. As a rose can be so many things, then how much more so that you, a human being, can be so many things.