Several weeks ago I took my little ones on a nature hike. Fall is my absolute favorite season and this was just about the last week of leaves we had before they gave way to winters nakedness. As we walked I snapped tons of photographs of the jewel toned shapes reflecting light from up above us. Branches played hosts to the most beautiful patterns and textures. Fall is how I know God loves me because everything explodes in warm hues and I'm convinced those trees are happy trees!
Anyways, after walking a while we got to a part of the trail where the wind had already taken most of the leaves off the trees. My daughter asked me "what happens to all the leaves that have already fallen, mama?".
I tried quickly to come up with an answer that wouldn't crush her tender heart so I said "Well honey, they have already served their purpose and now they get to rest all winter long like a blanket for the roots of the trees". I could almost here the Family Feud crowd shouting "Good Answer, Good Answer" in my head. But I felt like there was probably something more to this God and I would have to sort through later. I think more often than not God uses my teaching moments with my children to teach me in turn.
As I thought about this the rest of the day and actually weeks after I began to formulate this idea of nakedness/newness. Yesterday our pastor mentioned in his sermon that 2016 has been called by social scientists the worst year ever- the year filled with the most negative things ever recorded. Ya'll that means we out complained the Great Depression, Vietnam, & The Civil War. That's ridiculous and I'm sure social media has a big part to play in this mass ability to just spew our feelings.
Let's get back to the trees for a second. We often celebrate trees and their beauty in the Fall and again when they blossom in the Spring. BUT - what about that naked part in the middle? If you are up North those trees may be covered in a white winter coat, down here in the South they are just sprinkled with wet bark and moss right now. At first glance they can seem like sad, lonely shells of the massive beauty's they were a few weeks prior. There is a purpose to the nakedness.
Stripping away all that is old from the previous year leaves (ha ha ha pun) room for the new things to come. So much like the trees we have the wisdom of our achievements and mistakes from 2016 laid out at our feet and 2017 can only spring up from here. Even the Lily starts as a dull brown bulb, planted into cold and dark winter soil. Given nourishment and a few months time, it blossoms into Easter's favorite flower. Timing is everything, isn't it? If you are in a season where you feel like you have been stripped of your glory, beauty, sleep, sanity, pride, money, or joy..... please know that you are not alone in the dark. Know that each season serves it's purpose and God is refining you for the blooming that is to come.
I would love to walk along side you in this coming year and flood our lives with the good& beautiful. The only way to make the world a more beautiful place is to use the voice God gave you and act. Life has seasons just like this tree, my season is still a busy, crazy, overstuffed, under rested one, and yet I'm so excited to bring 2017 to life by sharing more love. I resolve that this year I will be less of me and more of Jesus, I want to complain less and be more grateful, I will bloom where He plants me ( as we move yet again), & I will grow in love.
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