Every spring, I enjoy the day when it seems as though all at once everything is green again. Despite the current oppression that has indwelled upon this spring with the widespread COVID-19 intruding upon each of our lives, the trees did not forget to bloom. The wildflowers and their perennial friends have blossomed.
Sometimes life for us feels seasonal too as though we are the perennial Christian only blooming when the Son feels close, warming us and nurturing us. But, oh, it is not so. Even when we our emotions feel heavy and the circumstances of the world feel as
though they are crowding us into an inescapable corner of doubt, grief, anxiety, or depression, the presence of God and his care for us does not leave us. God’s love is not seasonal; it is evergreen.
Matthew 6:30 encourages me in saying, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” I get uplifted and challenged by this verse, as a favorite
of mine, because how can it be that I would allow a blade of grass to have more faith than myself who is made in the image of God? Pastor Carl Toti of Trinity Church stated it in a new way for me in one of his recent sermons calling it our “manifest design” to be fruitful through faithfulness.
What does this mean for us then when we have those inevitable “bad” days? Grace, my friends, is never shadowed by our inconsistent emotions or the circumstances of this world. When we feel as though we are withering, call upon God and remember to
extend grace to ourselves, just a Christ, our Savior, has already. The Holy Spirit is our ever present, evergreen, friend that will retain the unfaltering joy within us, despite what outward emotions arise.
The world’s largest forest, the Taiga, consist mostly of evergreens. This is a beautiful design by our Creator that no matter what season the world is in, its largest collection of trees doesn’t wither. May our largest collection of joy also be evergreen and
found in God whose love for us is constant and true. May we be able to rejoice in the glory of God, even when we feel as though we are walking through the cold, darkness of winter, or through a worldwide pandemic such as we all are now.
Be mindful that we are each being sanctified, day-to-day, which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect to not have emotions or bad days, but it means that we are in a process that requires grace, requires Christ.
“For in it, [the gospel], the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith.”
(Romans 1:17)
In the process of our sanctification, God reveals himself to us. Pursue him in this odd season as we all “shelter-in-place” because he continues to pursue us. Let’s not view life as a cycle of blooming and withering, in and out of seasons, but, instead, like
sanctification infers, a lifelong bloom, unwithering, so that we will be in full bloom when
we see Jesus face to face.
Shawnee McClure
🌿🌸🌿
How uplifting Shawnee!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Thank you for your words of encouragement.
Beautiful ♥️