Re-look at old art...

I meant to post this image a while back... I drew it originally in high school. It was an assignment for my art class shortly after my father had passed away. At the time it was supposed to symbolize the pain of loss. I used the rose as a metaphor for my heart at the time... how it was being crushed... I don't really see it exactly that way anymore, at least in such a negative light... I see it more now that there is always hope... I did not look at it this way until now, but I guess I kinda see it as God's hand and that we are the rose... that he shapes who we are though the pain and suffering in our lives... that even though we go through pain in the end we become the whole rose, more beautiful than we were before... because we have become who God had planned from the beginning... Recently I added the scripture: "Let us rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character & character hope" Romans 5: 3-4 in the larger words... and "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" Romans 12:12 on the ink part of the drawing... They both seemed to fit best into what the drawing symbolizes to me now. I hope you enjoy it :-D