God can take the seemingly dead and useless and turn it into something spectacular.

I’m a big fan of trees. My yard is covered in them. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from them over the years. Being a lifelong Georgia girl, I grew up surrounded by pine trees. They are evergreen, but they aren’t very sturdy. A good ice storm will take them out like a bowling ball knocking down pins.

The trees that surround me these days are hardwoods, mostly oaks. They provide amazing shade in the summer and actually help keep our house cooler. In the fall, their leaves are so brilliantly colored, that they seem hand painted by God himself. They are horribly messy when they fall, covering our yard and filling up our gutters, but I’ve found over the years, that most of the beautiful things in life are messy.

Everything from puppies, to babies, to relationships, if they affect our hearts and souls, they tend to be messy, but oh so worth it.

I am also in awe of the fact that the mighty oak tree comes from a tiny acorn. When you hold one up next to the other, it doesn’t seem possible. Acorns remind me of the possibilities of dreaming big.

I recently learned a new lesson from some trees. Yes, I love them when they are green and when they are brilliantly colored. I can even appreciate them when they are bare in the winter. They remind me that we all go through seasons of dormancy, but deep roots along with the change of seasons, guarantee that we will again produce beauty.

But, what about dead trees? Do they have anything to teach?

Jekyll Island has a beach called Driftwood Beach, where hundreds of trees that have been uprooted by storms or other calamities, land on a particular point on the island. Once they are there, the sun bleaches them to almost white. You would think that there’s no way a bunch of dead trees would have anything to offer. much less become a tourist attraction.

But, the sun, the salt and the sea have made these trees into works of art. They each become individual sculptures of sorts. Tiny beach creatures make their homes in them. Tourists come from all over to see them. Children climb on them. People even get married with them as a backdrop.

God has taken something that man would deem lifeless and useless, put His hands on it and made it into something spectacular.

He does the same with us. We can put something tiny like an acorn, in His hands and He can create something mighty like an oak tree. He uses seasons in our lives to sometimes produce much beauty and shade like those leaves. Sometimes He leads us into a season of dormancy and yet other times, when we think it’s all over and we have nothing left to give, He creates the most unexpected, unique beauty of all, like those trees on Driftwood Beach and quite frankly, I stand amazed.

Some sun bleached trees reminded me of the limitless possibilities we have when we place our lives in God’s hands, no matter our age or stage in life. Perhaps you needed reminding too!

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

God is with us during both good and bad weather.

Last week we had some wild weather in parts of Georgia. We went from sunny and mid sixties to rain, to tornadoes, to really cold, to a beautiful snowfall within a matter of days.

On the tornado warning day, we had our kiddos at the elementary school, where I work, in the halls and bathrooms for their safety. Thankfully, we didn’t receive any damage, but we were all talking about it over the next couple of days. My favorite teller at the bank told me they took shelter in the vault. It seemed that everywhere I went, someone had a story to tell of a near miss with the bad weather.

Then it turned bitter cold on Friday and a little snow was forecasted early Saturday morning. No accumulation was expected.

But, when that snow started coming down in the late morning, it was spectacular. Big fluffy flakes fell over a couple of hours and our yards were blanketed for a couple of hours or so. It didn’t stick or stick around just as forecasted, but it made for a quiet peaceful picture for a little while.

My Facebook feed was covered in photos of people out playing with their kids and making snowmen on the little bit of snow that we had. Snow is a big deal in Georgia. It just doesn’t happen very often here and when it does, the child in all of us seems to awaken and beg us to go out and play.

A few hours later, the snow was gone, but memories were made that I suspect, will last a lifetime.

I’ve thought of our weather a lot over the past few days. I’ve thought of the scary tornado warnings and I’ve thought of the glorious snowfall and how God was present in both.

He shielded us when the weather was rough and later He sent us a rare winter treat. There were blessings in both, but I wonder if we really were able to comprehend them fully. It’s really easy to see God in the beautiful parts of life like the rare snowfall, or in the birth of a new baby, or in a new job, or when our prayers are answered. When times are good, we feel blessed and we believe that God is good.

But, what about when life is stormy? When we weather serious storms or even tornadoes in life like illness, divorce or the death of a loved one, do we believe God is with us then too? Do we believe that He’s still good and sheltering us in some unseen way? Do we miss the blessings in the storms by only longing for the good times?

The truth is we all will travel through both sunshine and storms on our journey here and maybe even a little snow, but we are called to remember that God is present in all weather and in every season and that we never walk alone. If we truly seek Him, we will always find Him.

Some wild weather reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Our scrapes and cracks can allow the light of Christ to shine through in beautiful ways.

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to make my own hand soap. I had read about all the chemicals in store bought soap and I wanted to give it a try. I went and bought some mason jars because I have been trying to use more glass than plastic. I painted a bunch of them with different kinds of paint and I put them to use holding the soap.

But, I made more than I needed and one was left unused. I don’t know why I didn’t pick that one, but I didn’t and so it sat on a shelf in the pantry.

Then I decided I wanted to make candles. I Googled it, read a bunch of articles, bought the supplies and talked my hubby into helping me and we made a batch. As I was searching for different vessels to use, I came upon the one left over from my soap making extravaganza.

I had painted it with latex paint and when it dried, I lightly sanded it. I don’t know why. I’m not particularly artistic or crafty. I just didn’t want it to look new or perfect, like it had just been purchased. I wanted it to look like it had been around a little while and had seen some action and use of some sort.

I took the jar and we poured the wax and waited for it to harden. The next day when I finally got to light it, I was delighted.

All of the sanded places in that jar allowed the light to seep through and the effect was beautiful. A perfectly painted, unscratched vessel would have never produced that kind of light.

I like to light that candle when I write. It reminds me of the beauty that can come from just traveling around the sun year after year. We may be born close to perfect, but every year that goes by causes scratches and cracks in our hearts and souls. Some come from our own bad decisions and some happen to us through no fault of our own. Sometimes we can even completely shatter and we wonder if we will ever be whole again, but we always have a choice on how to proceed.

We can remain shattered in the darkness or we can choose another way.

If we are people of faith, we can surrender all of the pain, anger, regrets and mistakes to Jesus and ask for forgiveness if we need it and redemption and He will help. He was a carpenter after all and He can rebuild even the most badly broken people. We won’t be the same. We won’t be unblemished. We will still carry the scrapes and cracks, but the beautiful thing about the light of grace is that it shines even more brilliantly through the cracks than it ever did before they were there.

Our past makes us who we are and no one is beyond redemption.

Isn’t grace amazing? A candle reminded me. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂

It truly is amazing how far a little grace can go.

Back in high school, I decided I wanted to run track. All my friends ran track and they all had so many fun stories. They got to check out early on many spring afternoons and I wanted in on the fun. The problem was, I wasn’t a runner. I hated to run with a purple passion. I had been a gymnast for quite a few years and later, a cheerleader, but never a runner.

However, a friend convinced me that the long jump could be for me. It wasn’t running. It was jumping. I reasoned that years of doing vault in gymnastics, made me a prime candidate. About the third practice, I injured a hamstring, severely. It hurt to walk or move much at all and jumping was definitely out. After resting it a few days and it was no better, I sadly gave up on my track dreams and that was a good thing because I didn’t think that hamstring would ever stop hurting. But, eventually it did.

I rarely think about my long jump failure, until that hamstring starts aggravating me and it still does. From time to time, it aches, either from running, (who knew I would end up liking a little bit of running?) or most recently, from a new yoga program. In the past, I would just ignore it an push through it, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned the importance of listening to my aches and pains. When something hurts, it’s best to give it some rest and care, because the older you get, the harder it is to heal.

As I was putting some heat on it the other day, I began to think about some of the aches and pains that come from simply living and I found myself thinking about the heart ones as well. Just like our bodies sometimes have to deal with old injuries, our hearts sometimes carry old hurts.

Even the ones that have healed, sometimes leave scars and can ache. Old childhood traumas like rejection and anger or broken hearts and broken relationships later in life, leave their mark on us. Sometimes for seemingly no reason, something happens that triggers a painful memory or emotion. When that happens, we have two options, just like we do with the physical injuries.

We can ignore it and power through, pushing it all down and hoping that it doesn’t manifest itself later through some hurtful words or actions towards others, who did nothing to deserve them, or we can choose a different way.

We can choose to acknowledge old hurts either just to ourselves, or in prayer, or even to a trusted friend and then we can let them go. Because sometimes just the acknowledgement of the trials and battles we have survived, is enough to strengthen any weak spot and get us back on our way and if we need further help with healing, God is always willing to provide. We only have to ask.

It’s truly amazing how far a little grace can go.

An aching hamstring reminded me. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂