Appreciating the Bare Spots

This leafless limb always annoyed me when I looked out my window.

There is a limb on an oak tree, outside my bathroom window, with no leaves on it. It annoys me every time I look out at the trees. It’s surrounded by limbs full of lush green leaves. Instead of appreciating all of the beautiful foliage that surrounds it, my eyes always seem to go directly to that bare spot. I wonder why it has to be there. It’s too high for my hubby to cut. Why can’t it just fall on its own?

My life can be like that too, I suppose. Everything can be going great. Everyone is healthy and relatively happy. (I do have teenagers!) Life can be overall really good, but there can be one small bare spot among all of the goodness and I can find myself focusing on that.

Perhaps you have experienced that too? Maybe everything is going great, but you hate your car. Maybe you have a great job, but you really dislike your boss or one of your co-workers. Maybe there’s a particular person in a club, group, or class that you are involved with, who aggravates you to no end. Maybe you have a job that pays very well, but offers you no satisfaction. The list is endless of the little things that we allow to consume our thoughts.

We can become so focused on the bare spots in our lives hat we start to miss all of the good things. We begin to forget all of the abundant blessings that we do have. Sometimes, there’s a good reason for those bare spots.

Look what I saw perched on that bare, unappealing limb.

As I was gazing out the window this weekend, guess what I spied sitting on that leafless branch? Yes, that’s a hummingbird. I had to look closely to see it, but there it was. As I continued to watch, it flew away and returned over and over and its mate did as well.

So, all of this time that I had cursed this bare limb, it was providing perfect refuge for a tiny hummingbird. It couldn’t have provided rest for a hawk or an owl; they are too big and it would likely break under their weight, but it seemed to have been tailor- made for the hummingbird.

This got me to thinking about the bare spots in my life. What if there’s a reason that some things don’t go as perfectly as I plan in my own mind? What if God is using those spots that I see as bare, to create something else entirely? What if I were to learn to give thanks in all circumstances and know that God is always at work, and then intentionally focus on the abundance and all of the good?

Hey, there are two Bible verses there. “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Hmmm, I may be onto something here. What do you think about appreciating the bare spots or at least not focusing on them? I’d love to hear from you.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂