I sat in my morning chair, enjoying that the time change again allows me to soak in the visual beauty of the deep orange leaves on my neighbor’s tree. This, our eleventh autumn living in this house, was the first that I had ever noticed this tree. My eyes glanced back to my device with the red-lettered ‘wind warning’.
An hour later, with phone in hand I stepped outside to take a picture of that eye-catching tree, knowing that that day would be the last day of morning beauty for my eyes.
Throughout the day, whenever I looked outside and saw the trees swaying, I envisioned orange leaves being battered from the tree and to the ground below.
When I returned home that evening, I was preoccupied with preparing dinner, policing the completion of homework, and preparing again for the next day to come.
The following day, I grabbed my coffee, and headed to my chair, with regret for the loss of my beautiful view.
What I saw surprised me, as the tree looked just as it had the previous morning. I was so surprised I even got our my phone to compare the before photo to the exact replica before my eyes.
I sat in delightful surprise, in awe of, not only the beauty, but the resilience in front of me. Despite gale winds, the tree held her beauty. The wind may indeed have battered her, but somehow she held on.
As I looked, in awe and wonder, I was reminded of Hebrews 10:23,
“Let us hold tightly without wavering
to the hope we affirm,
for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
Hebrews 10:23
We all have seasons when we are battered by the winds, some of them gale force winds, of life.
when families struggle to love each other.
when jobs do not fulfill us, or are lost due to cut backs.
when marriage is not smooth, or is ended.
when our health is failing, or our life is.
when we have to live with hurt, betrayal, disobedience, illness, worry, change, death,
and anything else that is battering our souls.
But, if we hold tightly, without wavering, to the hope that is Christ, He will not let us fall. We might get blown around, like those orange leaves on the tree, but we just need to hold on, to the One who can be trusted.
itsawonderfilledlife 