Hey my wonderful loves.
First of all, you probably have two or three emails sent from me because I accidentally hit tab and then sent my unfinished email twice so here is the finished one.
Second, I have two things I’d like to point out tonight but I’m not sure if I am going to be able to connect them like I’m seeing it, but here we go...
Throughout the Bible we have this theme: Open my eyes to see. Open my ears to hear. For the longest time I’ll be honest I thought I had 20/20 vision and well, I talked so much I didn't need to hear because I never took a breath so I didn't think I needed to hear anything. I suppose I thought that there were two kinds of people, talkers and listeners and we only had to master one.
In the past few weeks, I’ve began to explore this simple verb; open. To me, I’m wondering if it could mean to look for...Okay, we all have heard the phrase, "take time to smell the roses.” How about "take time to look for ways to see and hear God” and since we mentioned roses, my brain is doing a file search.
Story time. So here I am. If you can’t tell exactly what I’m doing I’ll tell you that it appears as if I’m crawling through a garden. Yes a garden. I am on my hands and knees crawling through thick, squishy mud (taking it for the team here).
Anyway, I like what I see but I think there might be something more than mud out there so I get on my knees and starts scooting along through the garden. At this point I think I can see it all but become quite disappointed when all I can see are some thorns sprouting from a green stem. I can't help but want to experience the thorns. I reach out for them as they prick my finger (ouch!). Hmm, there has to be more than this, I think. So I look up a little and see some leaves, hmm more green. But this time as I reach out to touch them they are soft and malleable. They don’t inflict pain to the touch.
Thinking there might be more out there I stand up and right in front of my eyes is the most amazingly beautiful red rose.
End of story you ask? Umm I suppose so...at least for now.
I just can’t help but think that the growth of a breath-taking red rose is much like my relationship with Christ.
Mud. When we first start out walking with Christ we are just learning the basics. We are the mud (if you take offense to this, I apologize) but the mud, the basics, is the most essential thing, the mud is what holds all the nutrients, it's what we are rooted in. The basics of being a follower of Christ is what we need to be rooted in to give us the essentials of following Him.
Thorns. The thorns protect the plant. The thorns in our life are the journeys, choices, and trials Christ takes us through. They often protect us from harm even when we can't see it.
Stem. The stem is our faith and hope in Christ, our backbone that gets stronger the more we root ourselves in the basics, and the more thorns we are able to handle, overcome, and protect ourselves with.
Leaves. The leaves are another form of soaking in nutrients and helping the plant grow, just as we, have many opportunities to soak in God's goodness.
Rose. The rose is the most beautiful part of the plant however, impossible to have without the mud, thorns, stem, and the leaves. We all want the flower part but we must be patient not to rush to get to the flower because the other parts are important. In fact, these other parts are the only way to get to the flower. Just so, as followers of Christ, we must be patient in His timing and all that He does. Every place and season of growth we're in is essential to becoming a beautiful blossoming rose.
The two things I’m trying to say are...
One, God is in control. It’s essential that we trust in His timing and in what He is doing with our lives. We must have patience knowing that God is faithful. Each season we have is a blessing from Him and in order to make the next season of growth the best we must make the season of growth we're in right now the best it can be. Make sense?
And if you only have "okay" mud that is missing some nutrients, then you'll have an "okay" stem with "okay" leaves and "okay" thorns. And then, you’re flower will only be an "okay" flower.
Completely enjoy whatever season you're in; whether the season is of joy, mourning, grieving, gratitude, or if you find yourself a student, a worker, a father, a brother, a sister, a mother, married, single, being an athlete, being a child. Whatever and wherever you find yourself today love it and live it to the fullest, what is the verse? "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as in working for the Lord." Hmm funny and it ties into "I came that you might have life and have it to the full” John 10:10. In order to have season B the most abundant, we must have season A to its fullest too.
And second of all, this one is sort of the smaller portion in relation to the whole email but has just as much worth. Look for God. It’s taken me a while to learn that God truly is in every good thing. But by stopping and taking the time to look for, meaning looking up, down, right, left, and all around at every good thing in my life, I see God at work; I hear His message to me. And as I start seeing and hearing all of these little things, I see His faithfulness shining through and I see how I am supposed to live this season to its fullest.
I hope I made some sort of sense but ah yeah, great day. God is good!
Cheering you on as you soak in His goodness today.
May you come to know and trust that all in God’s timing is all in good timing.
Kaylee
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