Reassurance on a Cloudy Day

Thank you to many dear readers who have reached out to let me know you’ve missed my blog posts! This has been a real encouragement to me as I’ve imagined an end to this unexpected hiatus from the blog. As I pray for direction in writing, your responses are very helpful!  

Sometimes, I think I’ve seen everything there is to see on my walk through our neighborhood and wonder if I’ve photographed all the beautiful and interesting finds. A few weeks ago, I discovered again that’s not true. I was walking my preferred route, so I can calculate I’ve walked by this tree for up to twenty spring seasons. This particular day was cloudy, and my eye was drawn to a beautifully bold magenta-pink color. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing—they looked like buds, but they were in the wrong place! Instead of up in the canopy, they were down low in the tree, actually emerging from the largest branches and a few from the trunk.

Were they actually new stems, disease, or maybe some brightly colored glob of mold?

I crept into this neighbor’s yard, tiptoeing onto their property uninvited to get a closer look. Yes, they were flower buds!

The trunk and branches were old and gnarly, and lichens were plastered onto the bark. Scars were visible from the pruning wounds of previous years. Yet the bud clusters were stunningly beautiful and delicate, their color glorious on that cloudy day. I mused, “How could something so fragile burst forth from such a dead-looking, hard, and dried up place?”

Then came a kind and gentle voice.

Yes, I am able. I can bring forth beauty from even the oldest, most crusty and hardened of places.

Oh my – a quiet encounter with wonderful reassurance from my Heavenly Father! In kindness He pulled me aside to illustrate His reminder for that particular day. He’s saying His work, the transformation of my soul, is ongoing. Even though my old nature and my ingrained habits seem so established, my deconstruction is still in progress. He is able (Ephesians 3:20), I can trust Him (Proverbs 3:5-6), and He has beauty in mind.

I’m reminded that in our journey with Christ, He will never stop fashioning His beauty in us until we see Him face to face.

One of my favorite verses comes to mind:

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that I will seek after:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

And to inquire in His temple.

Psalm 27:4

Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

I stalked this Eastern Redbud for several weeks to watch its progress. I had been so surprised by the tree’s beauty and how it arose from an unexpected and odd place. Like the tree, we aren’t disqualified from transformation because of our age or life stage. As we gaze on Him, intently observing His promises and His ways—beholding His glory, He will be reflected more and more in our lives. Though our habits can be hardened into place, our ways of thinking and processing seemingly instinctive, our desires stubbornly planted, He is able to do as He has promised.

I wonder. Are you like me? Do you find the promises and wonderful benefits of being His child too magnificent and manifold to hold in the forefront of your mind? I’m so grateful for the Holy Spirit He has given His children—for His witness to us (John 14:16-17, John 15:26) and His reminders! It is through the Spirit we guard what’s been entrusted to us (2 Timothy 1:14) and it’s though His Spirit we are transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18).

“Lord, thank You for the fresh beauty of a new season that points us to You and reminds us we continue to be transformed through beholding Your glory. Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit who reveals more and more of Christ to us, taking us deeper in the truth and bringing joy and worship as we discover new facets of who You are.”

In researching this unusual blooming pattern of the Eastern Redbud, I learned it’s definitely out of the ordinary in our temperate zone! This characteristic is termed “cauliflory.” To learn more about this unusual trait, take a peek at my Interesting Finds page.

If you would like more in depth reading on the continuous process of our transformation, I recommend Transformation by Beholding (biblehub.com) by Alexander Maclaren D.D.