CONFEDERATE ROSE BY MILTON DYKES

We have enjoyed a beautiful tree-size plant in our back yard that has the most unusual blooms. They are white in the morning and pink in the afternoon. It has been spectacular to see the blooms open each morning so white and then return home late in the afternoon and see the same blooms having turned a beautiful pink. Just amazing and spectacular!

We pruned the plant this year and now it is giving us the prettiest flowers. For the last three years we have watched the plant bloom in its unique fashion and couldn’t get anyone to tell us what kind of plant it was. Finally I took some pictures to a nearby nursery, and they identified it as a Confederate rose.

Confederate roses are not from the South but China, and they are not roses but hibiscus. Go figure…I haven’t discovered the origin of its name, but I was disappointed that it isn’t a genuine Southerner like me.

Nevertheless, we’ll keep it and enjoy the blooms each October.

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Kristy, here: I told Milton these flowers remind me of the verse in Isaiah: "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18). They're pink at night, and in the morning, presto, they're white. Just like our sins. From pink (red) to white. God is forgiving. Though we have sinned, if we repent and accept God's cleansing through the blood of Jesus, He will forgive us. What a glorious thought! No matter what we've done, no matter how stained our lives are, repentance and confession of sin bring back the purity!