"That rose is beautiful!"

Remember when you last saw a rose?
And you may have thought, with awe, “Isn’t that beautiful!”
The beauty seems to be new with each bud. Have you ever looked at one- this is a a truly beautiful rose - and thought, “Beautiful rose. Oh yes; I’ve seen one of those before...”
A friend gave birth this morning and named the baby, “Rose”. The friend, a musician, had heard Bach’s music described as “always beautiful.” She would always be awed by the beauty, again and again; no matter how many times she heard it. Just like a rose... and hence the name for her baby.
I am moved to tears. Why? Because (and my friend doesn’t know this) she has spoken to me about the main character in my new, soon-to-be-published-book. I named 'my' character “Rose”. As a little girl she had felt she was beautiful …until a man stole her sense of being truly loveable. Once things had gone wrong, she concluded that she would have to stop trusting what her Granny said of her, that “Rose is such a lovely girl.” Alone in her pink room, she told herself that she could no longer believe that word “is.” Instead she would have to make it “was”. She repeated to herself: “Rose was such a lovely girl.” That's in the very first chapter, when her quest only begins.
But a rose is always beautiful. Each one.
And so, this evening, as I ponder the name of this baby named Rose, and I consider Rose in my book, I seek to absorb into my own soul the fact that God also describes me as beautiful. However ugly I may feel, however much I consider myself dismissively as “just another human,” God yearns for me to see myself as He sees me. Uniquely beautiful.
Me.
And you of course...