Yesterday, I got my mower out for the first time this year. Mowing is one of my all-time favorite activities. I love mowing and talking with God. We have some of the best talks when I am mowing, because I can’t be easily distracted.
As, I mowed, I pondered how I often say that Fall is my favorite season of the year, yet, for some reason it just felt like Spring might be my new favorite season. How could that be? For as long as I can remember, I absolutely favored Fall. The smells, the colors, the falling leaves, the cool breeze, and the thanksgiving gatherings. There is so much to love about fall, not to mention the feasts. As a child, I didn’t know about God’s festivals. But, when I learned of them a while back, I fell in love with Fall all over again. Yet, as I mowed my lawn, I kept thinking of all the things I love about Spring.
The green grass, the baby lambs, the outside chores, the children’s laughs, and so much more. Maybe, I love Spring, now more than Fall. Can it be?
I, of course, am being a bit silly. Fall and Spring are both, equally joyous and wonderful. Both, are filled with God’s special festivals. Both are full of His handiwork, and beauty.
But, as I pondered the love of the changing seasons, with my Creator, on my lawn mower. I couldn’t help but consider that life is like those changing seasons. There is always times in life that have Spring rains, and even pouring showers that bring new life and growth. There is also those times when life seems to slow, and the colors seem to fade, and everything looks dead, and brown, and cold. The seasons of life go round and round. Up and Down.
But, no matter what season I am in, I can reach out to my Savior, and He will pull me up and place my feet on solid ground. Sometimes, we slip and fall when the storms are all around us, because we forget to keep our eyes fixed on Yeshua. But, all it takes is a cry for help, and He will lift us up.
Do you know the story of Peter walking on water, that I am referring to? If not, here it is.
I have in my yard lots of plants that my children and husband have bought me over the years. Mostly, tulips, because thy are my favorite flower. My family buys them for me, and I decorate my house with them, then after a while, their petals fall off, and they no longer look very pretty. So, I take them out, and I plant them in my yard, and I trim them down low.
Then through the summer, and through the fall and winter, they stay buried in the dirt. But, when Spring comes they push up through the dirt and they bloom again. Then when their petals fall off again, I again trim them down, and the process begins again. Now, Tulips are a bulb plant, and they spread under the ground, producing more bulbs. So, year after year, I begin to have so many tulips in one place that, I have to dig some up and move them to another place.
These plants go through each season, rain, snow, heat, and sometimes hard winds and storms. They endure me cutting them down every year to make them stronger and hardier. Sometimes, I experience plant loss, because of soil conditions or animals, or even damage by accident from people. But, most of the plants actually do get stronger, and produce even stronger offspring.
As I mowed around my yard, and saw my tulips beginning to bloom, I couldn’t help but realize this is also how my life is. I have to endure hardships and sometimes the Father cuts me down to make me stronger. When I get stronger, and I weather the storms, and I allow the Gardener to replant me at times, I make my offspring stronger, more able to withstand the storms, the weak soil, the heat, and even the drought. When I learn to trust the Gardner, I teach my children that He can be trusted.
Whatever season, whatever trials, whatever changes come my way, I pray that I will always keep my eye on Yeshua, and if I forget, or get distracted by the storm, that I will quickly call out to Him to rescue me. With Yeshua before me, and the Gardener planting me and tending to me, I know that even if I fail that the tulips that come as offspring from me will indeed be cared for. He is trustworthy.
John 15
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