As I have shared before, I absolutely love summer and having the
opportunity to be outside and learn from God’s creation. There just is so much that nature can teach
us, if we just take the time to observe what is happening.
Last year, Dan decided that a bush that we had by our deck just
had to go. It was out of control and
starting to die in the middle. No
trimming or pruning made it look good, so out it came. We then had the dilemma of what we would
plant to replace this bush.
We have a window well in that area of our landscaping, so we
decided to plant 5 Rose of Sharon bushes in a semi-circle so they will
eventually block the view of the opening to go under our home. Because I tend to be a frugal person, I
decided to order these 5 bushes on the Internet to save money and lets just
say, we had to laugh when they arrived.
They were nothing but sticks.
Dead looking sticks. We even
hesitated to plant them because we were pretty sure that as the summer went on,
we would continue to look from the deck and see a row of sticks. They had no look of life at all and showed no
signs of flourishing. But we decided to
treat them as if they were growing and we watered and fertilized them.
As last summer went on, we began to see a little bit of growth
on the sticks. It wasn’t overnight and
they still weren’t at all beautiful, but at least we had hope!
This summer, this is what we are seeing. Life.
Beautiful green leaves with gorgeous flowers prolifically growing on
each of the five bushes. They aren’t
real tall and they aren’t big enough to form a hedge, but their beauty is
something at which I find myself staring.
There is just so much to learn from these creations of God.
I received so much feedback from my blog post last week when I
shared about my week not being pretty.
Many of you thanked me for being “real”…for letting you know that you
are not alone in sometimes feeling like God couldn’t love you because of what
you had done in the past or in your present.
I think in those times, we feel a lot like these sticks that we
planted. We feel dried out…we feel
somewhat dead…and doubt that we will ever see “life” in us again.
But just like these sticks, just because we don’t see anything
beautiful in ourselves at this moment, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t life in
us. Even when we can’t see it, God is
working. God is shaping us. God is giving us what we need so that the day
will come when we will start to see “blooms” in our life once again.
Our responsibility during this “dormant” time is to make sure
that we are still watering our soul through prayer and fertilizing our mind
with His Word. We need to do our part so
that God can do His part to change us into someone that reflects His
image. It is during this time that we
need to trust…even though we aren’t seeing signs of growth…but trusting that
God is in control and always knows what is best for us.
This past week was another one in my life where I felt like one
of those sticks. Things happened that
once again weren’t pretty and I found myself asking God why these things were occurring
at this particular time. But over and
over again during these past days I just kept hearing the Master Gardener say
to me, “Trust me LuAnn. Just trust and let
me work out my plan for you. Right now
you don’t see beauty, but in time, blooms will appear once again.”
Even though my life doesn’t always make sense, God is still so
faithful. He never leaves my side and is
always there to prune those things that need eliminated in my life and then
instill in me His Words to fertilize my soul.
If my God can make beauty from ashes…He surely can make beauty from you
and me!
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