Transformation
TRANSFORMATION! Isn’t that what God is all about for us? I have been pondering that process a lot of late as Dean and I have been putting in many hours and a lot of hard work in our backyard. It all started in March of 2020, when we realized that COVID meant no more gatherings inside our home. This caused us to look in the back at what a neighbor described as a jungle! It had been neglected for many years (our house is 90 years old) and I had been so focused on re-creating the front of our house, that I pretended that our back belonged to someone else. But now, it was time to turn it into something useable and even enjoyable. Where to start? We removed many old and dying trees, pulled weeds, pulled more weeds, put down cardboard to kill yet more weeds, covered it with bark, planted more desirable plants and even put in a water feature. There were aches and pains, bruises for both of us and even a concussion for me as I fell backwards on one of the many basalt rocks we uncovered in the process.
Is this not what God desires for each of us? Does He not desire to pull out the weeds, cut down the old and unproductive, trim off the branches that are draining the nutrients from the more important ones and bring new life to us, His beloved? He is in the business of restoring the years the locust has eaten!
Is this process easy? Not at all! First, we are in denial about what needs to be done. Then we see the need, but find it hard to rouse ourselves to cooperate with the Master Gardener. When we allow Him to do His trimming and pruning, it is painful. Do I REALLY want to let go of that desire or plan or worldly aspiration? We must ask the Holy Spirit to enter in and do what we cannot do on our own. That can be a very difficult letting go and letting God. Jesus speaks of this pruning in John 15.
And is this transformation once and for all? We have 5 pine trees in the back and even if we had everything just the way we wanted it, the continual dropping of pine needles are like our daily sin and mortality. The only way we can make our “Down Under” a welcoming spot is to continually and constantly tend to the needles. And isn’t that the way it is with our walks with God. He loves us too much to leave us as we are. He is eager to gently, but firmly, apply His grace to each of us.
Judy Schulz