Hope from a thousand-year-old rose
Photograph by Joshua Harris via Unsplash
Rev. Margaret Marcuson
How can we take the long view in tumultuous times? You already know all we face globally and locally. You see the headlines. And you look around your own community and church. No one is immune. We see endless political turmoil. We are in the midst of unprecedented human-created climate change. And disruptive technological change.
It helps to look back as we look forward. Our world has faced tough challenges before. In other times humans have faced both climate and technological issues — and political challenges at least as difficult and disturbing as ours.
The oldest rose in the world
The natural world has been around much longer than we have. Here’s one example: the Rose of Hildesheim. This rose is believed to be the oldest living rose bush in the world. Legend says King Louis, son of the emperor Charlemagne, planted the rose about 815. The rose grows at the cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany.
The cathedral was bombed by the Allies in World War II, in 1945. The rose plant was destroyed. Or so it seemed. The roots were intact, and within a few weeks began to sprout again. Now it covers the outside of one end of the cathedral.
None of us live for a thousand years. And we probably wouldn’t want to. However, human beings are resilient. Spending time in nature is one way to increase our resilience. Find some connection with the outside and with beauty. Even the sky can give us a bigger view and energy to go on. I once met a man who was an evangelist for the sky. He suggested you look at the sky often. He said, “Even if there’s a garbage dump in front of you, you will see 80 percent sky and 20 percent garbage.” Thirty years later, when I feel the burdens of life, I look up at the sky. It always gives me perspective.
None of us live for a thousand years. And we probably wouldn’t want to. However, human beings are resilient. Spending time in nature is one way to increase our resilience.
If you feel overwhelmed by your life or the news, try this:
Go outside. Look at the sky. Go for a walk and look for plants. Even for grass growing through cracks in the sidewalk.
If you’re not able to go outside, look out your window. Or try one of the many camera views of nature.
The National Park Service offers multiple wildlife webcams:
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/watchingwildlife/webcams.htm
SkiesLIVE gives nightly telescopic views and into space:
https://www.youtube.com/@skieslive
Hold onto joy
Nature can help us find more joy. In “For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional,” Hanna Reichel offers a resource for individuals and congregations. Reichel titles one reflection: “Rejoice Always, or Lean into Joy.” Reichel writes about Esther “Etty” Hillesum. Etty risked her life to help her fellow Jews in Amsterdam. She was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943. Under the most difficult conditions, she was able to hold onto joy.
Nature, and even the memory of nature helped. Etty wrote in her journal, “Somewhere inside of me the jasmine continues to blossom undisturbed, just as profusely and delicately as it ever did. And it spreads its sense round the house where you dwell, oh God…”[i]
In a similar vein, Reichel suggests, “Guard little pieces of God. Guard little pieces of joy. Look further around you, look deeper inside you, at all that is there that does not bear the name of suffering…Make space for that joy and let it grow.”[ii]
Let us receive and live out this blessing from Paul in Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Rev. Margaret Marcuson is an American Baptist minister and author of several books, including the recent “Sustainable Ministry: How to Lead (and When to Nap).”
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
[i] Reichel, Hanna. For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2025, p. 76.
[ii] Ibid., 78.
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