The red rose

My friends and I recently pulled off a 'romantic' masterstroke and watched happily as it melted the women in our lives. These women are not our lovers but friends with whom we fellowship and serve the Lord.

It happened that two of them celebrated their birthday in the same week, and a third her fifth wedding anniversary. As the men in the group we did nothing to honour them beyond saying "happy birthday" and "happy anniversary" through our WhatsApp group.

If they thought these brothers don't really know tender-loving-care beyond words, they were proved  wrong a few days later when we gave them a surprise that blew them totally away! Actually we did something simple but it was made special by the fact that it was the first time we were doing something like this. Plus the sisters realised that their born-again brothers have "game" too.

We just pooled money and ordered a nice personalised cake with the girls' names on top as the icing. We did not stop there. We also bought a red rose for each of the girls, not just the birthday girls. Real roses, not the plastic stuff.

And then we met up for prayers as usual, cake and the roses safely hidden.  After the prayers, we said, "Attention, ladies! We got a surprise for you!!" The cake was brought out and one of us spoke on behalf of the men; something brief and precise – about how we treasure our sisters-in-Christ and value the moments we always share during the fellowships.

You should have been there to see them melt with joy like butter in the sun. Oh how they bubbled with delight and sniffed the roses like they had the sweetest fragrance in the world! That evening, the sisters learned that it's not true that Christian brothers are boring. And we discovered the magic in the red rose.