I love this sweet sign a precious friend gave me. It’s so true, isn’t it?
God handpicked specific people for every season of life to care about us, laugh with us, celebrate & grieve with us. Some encourage us & give gentle nudges when we get stuck. Others offer us the beautiful gifts of listening & compassion. There are friends who bring out our adventurous spirit & spontaneity & friends that bring a calm, steady peacefulness.
If you find yourself in a season of loneliness, I know that it’s a really hard place to be. I’ve been there. It hurts. We need to believe & trust that God is right there waiting to fill up that lonely place with Himself – the best friend one could ever have.
In that season, I think He’s also handpicking, shaping, & setting all the things in motion for you & another, who’s waiting for a friend, to bump up against each other, smile, & embrace the blessing of a dear soul taking up residence in your heart.
Every season of life tends to bring with it different situations, relationships, and challenges that we aren’t prepared for and are unsure how to navigate.
Those changes might come as blindsiding chaos, or slow shifts into different seasons of parenting, friendships, health issues, and managing our time.
Perhaps one key to getting through these seasons is to fall back on what you know about God. I mean back to the bare bones basics–He is sovereign, good, Savior, compassionate, and omnipotent.
What He promises in His word is true. He is closer than our next breath and has never left us alone. Never.
We are so deeply loved.
It’s good to remind ourselves of what He has already brought us through, given us His strength to handle, and the times He has simply carried us when we couldn’t go another step.
When I was battling an aggressive form of breast cancer there were days that I had nothing left to give and very little hope. Fear, pain, and the unknown were too overwhelming and that is when I KNOW He carried me and my family. He made a way where I couldn’t see one.
I had to go with what I knew about God even when it felt like I was walking down a dangerous, crooked path with no clear destination in the dark.
I knew He was good, kind, merciful, Healer, Warrior, Provider–Emmanuel and the God of the impossible. I knew He loved me and that is what I held on to.
When we focus on what we know about God and seek out moments of joy and blessings, I believe that the spirit of heaviness and sadness that the enemy desires to cover us with, can become a garment of praise and an oil of gladness that soothes and protects us, drawing us into the arms of Jesus.
I pray that whatever season you are in right now, you will take a minute to go with what you know about God. Breathe Him in. Ask Him for reminders, blessings, and precious bits of joy to sustain you, comfort you, and give you hope. He’s got you, my friend. You will be okay.
“Bearing fruit each season without fail.” Hmm… Reading this verse feels hopeful. It feels encouraging; relief that despite seasons where nothing goes right, one difficult, trying thing after another happens, and you feel blindsided, and exhausted – even then we bear fruit. It may not be loud, obvious, beautiful fruit, but the scripture DOES say “each season.”
Maybe you are in a season, like me, where things are not going as planned or hoped, and you feel disappointed , and blindsided by events you never saw coming. It’s not an easy place to be.
I wonder if we slow down, breathe a minute, and look around us, we will see that there is fruit here. Perhaps it’s a fruit called trust, rest, patience, hope, letting go, or compassion for another who’s struggling.
God is with you in whatever season you are in right now. I know it doesn’t always feel like it or look like it, but He is. He promises to never leave us alone. He is the Promise Keeper. He is faithful and He keeps His promises.
My husband and I are empty-nesters and this year with my son in the military overseas and my daughter not having much time off, we decided to do something different and go camping. We love to be in the outdoors whether it be camping, hiking, beach days – if it’s outdoors, we enjoy it! So off we went to a campground we’d never been to before in the Redwoods. It was chilly, damp (so firewood was testy and finicky), and gets dark early especially deep in the trees. We watched DVDs when it was too dark and chilly to be outside, cozy and warm in the trailer.
If you have read any of my books, you KNOW that mountains and forests are my happy place. The hikes we took did not disappoint! The Redwoods were breathtakingly beautiful. I felt a deep peace gently fall on me as we hiked in the stillness. The muted, filtered light was magical and ethereal, the fog soaked forest floor felt spongy and tender under our boots. The tiny spider webs looked like elaborately woven lace as drops of mist clung to each strand. I could feel restoration wrapping me up as I breathed in that one of a kind forest air hiking with my husband, enjoying our time away from busy city life.
We spent aday in a coastal town that we love exploring the shops, buying our favorite homemade jam, and walking along the headlands breathing in the salty sea air. So fresh and clean. The ocean and setting sun didn’t disappoint either!
I am so thankful that we decided to get outside our “normal” and camp in the woods. It was cold, refreshing, invigorating, and a much needed time away for us to hike, laugh, and just be for a couple days. Pressures and stressors melted away for a bit. It was good for our souls. God always knows what we need, even when it looks different than what we always do. For that, I am so thankful.
“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.”
This pond in my neighborhood is one of my favorite places to walk and get a bit lost in nature. I love how the trees and flowering bushes change with the seasons. It’s something constant in an ever changing, rushed, and often chaotic world. I have had many conversations with God here. It feels a sacred and holy. I know I will find Him here under these sweeping, sheltering trees with the beautiful filtered light that shifts and shades.
How comforting and safe it feels knowing that every morning Jesus has a new, unchanging, unfailing love for me and for you. It hasn’t diminished overnight or faded away. He hasn’t moved on to the next best thing or lost interest. Every morning without fail He is there and He always will be. Through stormy seasons of doubt, fear, anger, and unexpected changes, and through seasons of peace, calm, and joy. Unfailing.
If we trust Him with us, if we give ourselves, and our plans into His hands, He will be faithful to hold, guide, and deeply love us. He will show us where to walk. His staff clears the way of obstacles that tempt us to give up, go around, or follow the wide, easy way. In the freshness of the morning, we can hear His voice calling out to come and talk to Him, and walk with Him along the pathway He’s laid out just for us.
I pray you will find a sweet place where you talk to Him, listen to Him, and choose to trust Him as your guide and best friend. Unfailing love. It’s yours, if you choose to lean into it. You are so loved. Peace be with you.
Gentle sunbeams peek through the branches and leaves of the willow tree. The soft light covers one edge of the wooden park bench beneath its branches.
The sun hasn’t been up for long. The spring morning is quiet and cool after a clear and chilly night. The newly budding leaves are vibrant and proud. They take their job seriously as the giver of shade to the bench and those who visit it.
They are a pair, these two, often referred to as the “willow bench” by those who find solace in its shade and peace from the view of the lovely little park. The things they have heard and seen in their years together – laughter and tears, joy and pain, love and heartbreak. Anxiety and fear are lifted and soothed as the Creator’s breath blows healing in the breeze rustling the leaves and cooling the bench-sitter.
His whispered healing is found in bird song, critter antics, fellow bench sitters and simply the peace and quiet where words are not needed; where love flows and tenderly holds the wounds poured out in the freedom found under the sweeping branches.
The willow and the park bench have seen seasons come and go. Spring, with the burst of new growth and gentle light from the sun encouraging park visitors to venture out and soak up the warmth.
The coming of Summer invites families, groups, picnics and summer games of baseball, frisbee throwing and kite flying with the bench and the willow providing shade and rest.
In the Fall, the leaf-peepers and lovers of the season, with their hoodies and warm drinks in hand, walk the park with anticipation of the changing colors and that feeling of slowing down, coziness and letting go that Fall always conjures.
There are less visitors in Winter when the cold descends, and glimpses of the sun are few and far between. The park folds in on itself as the work of deep rest and hidden growth takes place.
Then there are the faithful ones who visit the bench and the willow no matter the season. They have experienced peace and deep rest here. The wooden bench and gnarled willow are old friends who know all the secrets and pining of the heart and accept and embrace it without words. These park-goers have felt the divine whispers and heavenly songs breathed out over them while sitting in nature’s silence. They have allowed the healing and supernatural presence of the Creator to bind up wounds and lift heavy burdens. With ears that hear and eyes that see, what is sought can be found in the most ordinary and beautiful places.
We lover’s of Autumn have a sixth sense about us; a knowing when that first revelation of summer’s end has arrived.
It is felt on the skin in that barely discernable nip and twinge of air, charged with the slightest of chills; awareness that the atmosphere has changed just a smidge.
Autumn’s scent is unique and mischievous. Earthy and deep; wise, pungent and bold in the way brown leaf tips, restless trees and fading flowers bend and drop to the Earth, daring the one watching to stop them; to impede the ancient progress of a slow, yet lovely descent into quiet and rest.
That spritely spurt of wind, which tosses and dances fallen leaves and finished flowers round and round, is delightful. What is it about piling up crispy, browned leaves and then dashing them about; flinging them from orderly piles into random and untamed flurries of color? A new beginning; a tossing and mixing up of the old, lazy routine into something new; a plan to disrupt the status quo and wait patiently through the Winter, as that plan takes on form and substance. Somehow the chaos of it is lovely and energizing; part of the ritual. It is one more wild streak before the settling and simmering of Autumn moves on to the mystery and silent brooding of Winter.
The discerning observer will witness Nature’s response to the shift from the indolent, dog days of summer to Autumn’s call to let go; the song of quiet purpose and intention, as Mother Earth whispers it’s time to fold in, cozy up and allow rest to perform its miracles and the deep, sweet slumber of Winter to wait in the wings.
There is something inspiring and invigorating in this call to purposeful letting go; an anticipation. Is it the definitive color changes and that unmatched fall scent in the air that feels like a new beginning? Is it the crisp sensation of fall air as one breathes it in?
Welcome Autumn! Come and show off your colors and dare us to think about the dead or dying places that we need to let fall; not with sadness or fear; but with an anticipation that a season of silent regrouping, where new life starts to bud, will soon break free with the coming of Spring. It’s coming and it will be glorious!
Extravagant Hope 