“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

As I write this in New Zealand the roses are blooming in people’s gardens and the rose garden at the cemetery is looking particularly splendid. As I was walking among the cemetery’s rose garden today it occurred to me, as I know it has to many others, that working with roses is sometimes an apt illustration for working with people.

Roses have thorns that prick and poke when you are working amongst them, making tasks like pulling weeds from among carpet roses a painful …