The Cycle of Life
With rake in hand and fertilizer spreader on deck I perused my front lawn covered with leaves. My May Day trees and Lilac bush hadn’t totally finished dropping their leaves yet. Would it snow soon? Should I take a chance and wait another week?
I looked up at my reluctant May Days as a leaf coasted down beside me. I experienced its beauty through the bright yellow / orange color. Picking it up by the stem it felt dry and crunchy, waiting to enrich the soil for next spring’s new growth. The cycle of life.
I was moved to compare my spiritual life with this leaf. My spiritual growth is also cyclical. Before I can have new life or growth I must let the old or passing life die in order to glean from the new, fresh life our Creator is offering me. As human as I am, I cling to the old or passing life I liken to the leaf which clings to the branch. I am secure, comfortable and I trust in its ways. Why let go? Why change? Like the leaf I struggle with the wind to hang on to the security of the old way.
The letting go finally comes about….I drift into nothingness. This is frightening….what is on the other side? The leaf trusts the mystery of it’s Creator as it touches the earth from which it came and settles into the sacrificing of it’s being to produce new life. As well, I in letting go, floating into nothingness, must trust my Creator to amalgamate all that I have experienced and come to the place of letting it go to step into the new deeper life He so desires to give me.
A new stage / a step forward / a deeper growth, comes from abiding with My Creator in the winter season as I rest and learn of Him.
John 15:4 “Abide in Me, as I in you;. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in Me.”
Spring will come; a new bud of green shows itself amongst many others becoming a beautiful nurturing part of God’s creation, a true witness of His presence and love. May I also through my new growth become a true witness of Him, His love and His beauty drawing others to Him.