By Lauri Wong
It’s such a delight when God gives us pictures of what He is doing in our lives. Several years ago, God led a Jewish gentleman from our business to give me 5 crepe myrtle bushes. There was a patch in my garden where I had planted a few “Jacob’s Ladder” hybrid tea roses. They had failed to flourish and died, being taken over by weeds and brambles. So needing to plant my new acquisitions quickly, I dug up the roses and thorns and planted my new bushes in their place.
During my devotions the next day God led to Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”
Holy Spirit confirmed that the season of trial and testing that I was then enduring was closing and the days of His favor had risen upon me. During the dark night of my soul, I had indeed “wrestled with God” and prevailed, seen Jacob’s Ladder and now traded my thorns and briers for the beauty of God’s crepe myrtle. They remain today as a memorial in my garden of God’s grace and faithfulness.