Good morning…
Driving out of our neighborhood on the way to school, our fourteen year old son said, “Look at how different all of the trees are on the street.” Some had brilliant colors, reds, yellows, oranges. Others were still bushy with tons of green leaves. Still others were completely bare, they had already shed their leaves for this year’s season. What an interesting observation.
Isn’t this true about ourselves spiritually as well? Some people are in a vibrant, colorful season of faith, God’s presence is unmistakably alive upon their branch. Other people are still green in their faith, they have yet to experience the spiritual transformation God has planned for their future. Still others have lived past a peak, passionate experience of faith, but what was once clearly true has faded in color, dried up, fallen away; they stand naked, barren, wondering, “Where are you God?”
The challenge is this: these trees in our neighborhood do not have a choice about when their leaves will change, what color they will be, when their vibrant expression will fade, dry, fall away for the season. We people are the same. We can not speed up our own spiritual transformation or the spiritual transformation of our loved ones. We can not slow down or stop life’s natural changes of season. God is doing God work within each one of us, in His time, at His pace, follow His own design. We are each a unique piece of God’s art, limbs and leaves transforming by the LORD’s design.
Not a tree in God’s garden was in the same class of beauty. “I made it beautiful, a work of art in limbs and leaves,” Ezekiel 31:9 (MSG),
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