WHERE THE ROSES NEVER FADE

WHERE THE ROSES NEVER FADE I was listening to gospel music while on my PC and this song came up. I know it's not really a hymn, but I found this interesting article by Chaplain Sherree Lane about the author. “It’s August. Summer is going too fast! It’s nearly time for the State Fair. As I sit looking at the beautiful flowers blooming outside my window at Scandia Shores, I wonder how long they will continue to bloom. Some may continue blooming until frost. I read if flowers are cut, some, for example roses, can continue blooming for approximately one week. Carnations, however, can last 2-3 weeks.” My sister told her husband, “Buy me carnations instead of roses because they last longer.” She is the practical one! Never mind that roses symbolize love!
According to the song lyrics, there is a place where flowers do not fade. Janie West Metzgar wrote the lyrics:

I am going to a city where the streets with gold are laid

Where the tree of life is blooming and the roses never fade.

Here they bloom but for a season soon their beauty is decayed

I am going to a city where the roses never fade.

Loved ones gone to be with Jesus in their robes of white array

They are waiting for my coming where the roses never fade.

Here they bloom but for a season soon their beauty is decayed

I am going to a city where the roses never fade.

Janie wrote this song after a visit to Prayer Mountain just outside the small town of Liberty, Tennessee. She also wrote “Jacob’s Ladder.” Janie was an orphan who was left in a potato basket on the west steps of a Baptist orphanage that provided her with a nurturing environment in which to flourish. She became a devout believer in Jesus, wrote her first song at 12 years of age, and later studied music at Baylor University. Many notable artists have recorded her songs such as Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, and Johnny Cash, plus gospel choirs. The Cathedrals Quartet recorded “Where the Roses Never Fade.”
Janie feared the commercialization of the Gospel message thus she refused to take royalties or receive credit for her work, so many of her compositions were listed as “anonymous” for many years. And, interestingly, Janie was a great advocate for civil rights and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.
The message of her song lingers. There is a place Jesus is preparing for those who follow Him. We cannot imagine the beauty of heaven. We cannot imagine the flowers, their varieties and colors, and all “the creation itself [that] will be liberated from its bondage to decay…” (Romans 8:21). How do I know that? “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
Think about that next time you breathe in the aroma of roses!!                                                  “Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor of our God.”                                                                                                              Isaiah 35:1-2