It’s funny how things change.
I’m not talking about big changes. Not those life-altering events that change our lives forever. Not the miraculous 180 degree turn changes.
I’m talking about the little right-in-the-middle-of-every-day-looking-the-same type changes. Those little nuances that make today a little different from yesterday or tomorrow. The conversations. The number of clouds in the sky. A new bud bursting into bloom on a tree. If we look, there are millions of these seemingly insignificant but miraculous changes every single day.
And those small, almost minute, shifts in our normal days are signs of life. That nothing truly stays the same. Process is happening. Progress is being made. Growth is occurring. Even when we miss the evidence of it.
A seed is planted in the ground. You can’t see what’s happening beneath the surface but life is taking place. And how do you know? Because it’s in a safe place where seeds are meant to be. And given the right environment of water and sunlight and soil that seed begins to change. Soon we see evidence of that process. The tiniest little green sprouts begins to show above the surface as if lifting its little face to the light of day. Before you know it, it’s stretching its little arms from its delicate little stem. Smiling up at the sun, soaking in its warmth. Growth begins to take place at an amazing pace and you find yourself looking forward to waking each day to see its progress. Life running through its emerald green veins. Fruit or vegetables or flowers appear and suddenly life isn’t just in that plant any more. It’s become a part of you as you savor that raspberry or bite into that corn on the cob. It gives life to anyone gazing at that flower’s beauty. Life that was once invisible, once so tiny and hidden, is now offering life to others.
There is life in us as long as we are breathing. And with life comes growth. We may not see it at first. We may long for dramatic signs of it happening. But if we are in the right environment (good people, good place, good conversations, an open heart), taking in the right nutrients (God’s love, His presence, His word) even the tiniest shift in our thinking, our perspective, our attitude, our character and most importantly our hearts, means that something is going on. Life is stirring inside, getting ready to burst through the surface. Parts of it may look ugly as we push through the dirt and potential weeds on the way out. But God is at work. The Master Gardener is in no hurry to rush the process that will create the most beautiful flower, the most luscious fruit. The greatest evidence of life.
Let’s not miss the tiny changes. The loveliness of the growth process itself. Learning with each important phase. Let’s trust process even when we can’t see progress. Let’s embrace even the pain with the knowledge that it also denotes life.
It’s happening. Let it. Watch it. Enjoy it. Share it.
Life is like that…
Matthew 13:8 – Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
1 Peter 2:2 – …like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation…
John 15:4-5 – Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit…”
