Good morning…
Enjoying a meandering walk, I took a few photos after an early morning rain in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The purple pedals. The yellow center. The lush green leaves. The rocky eastern shore. The naturally fallen blooms.
All of a sudden in buzzed a bumblebee. I was gifted with a photo shoot featuring this fuzzy creature.
Being fully present at the perfect time and the perfect place, I was blessed with a sacred moment of silent admiration.
“Do you feel like a lowly worm…? Don’t be afraid. Feel like a fragile insect…? I’ll help you. I, God, want to reassure you. The God who buys you back…I’m transforming you from worm to harrow, from insect to iron. As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains, turn those tough old hills into loamy soil. You’ll open the rough ground to the weather, to the blasts of sun and wind and rain. But you’ll be confident and exuberant, expansive…” (Isaiah 41:14-16, MSG).
A soft burrowing worm is transformed into a harrow, “a cultivating tool set with spikes, teeth, or disks and used primarily for breaking up and smoothing the soil” explains the Merriam-Webster dictionary. A fragile insect is transformed into strong iron, smoothing out the mountains, turning tough old hills into loamy soil. “Creating loose, loamy, fertile soil is not a one-and-done garden task,” explains thespruce.com. “Turning your soil into loam is an ongoing process by incorporating organic matter every year. Organic matter is quickly depleted as it decomposes, so amend the soil each season.”
This busy little bee quietly came to me, tiny, unimportant, easy to overlook. Might we also feel small, powerless, insignificant? Feeling like a fragile insect or a lowly worm, we are invited to fully surrender into God’s transforming power. “I’ll help you,” says the living LORD. The Almighty is helping us, transforming us, opening rough, resistant ground, inside and around us. We are learning to incorporate all types of weather, blasts of sun and wind and rain. Reassured by the God who buys us back into organic oneness, we are growing confident, exuberant, expansive.
“Don’t be afraid,” whispers one tiny bee. “Be amended by God’s Spirit, season after season. Be confident. Be exuberant. Be expansive.”
…Sue…
