BEFORE:
Fourteen bushes once lined our home. Three remain.
Most were tall and leafless. A couple of others were partially alive, but bare wooden tentacles interlaced with the leafy branches. Not pretty.
AFTER:
Now there is bare space. It needs cleaning and renewal, but at least the obstacles to replanting are gone.
I even took the leap and bought myself a few pretty plants for the rest of this season.
While I still have a very low interest overall in landscaping, I’m desperate for beauty around me and life within me.
What are you uprooting? How are you bringing beauty into your life?
At the start of the summer I felt the Lord saying one word repeatedly to my soul: rest. As I take time to be still, I do not always see beauty. I’ve noticed unproductive thought patterns, unhealthy words, and ugly feelings. My first step: uproot them!
Like my bare flowerbeds, areas in my thoughts need cleaning, planning, and replanting, but even in the process I see splashes of color through a verse, a conversation, a song.
May God speak renewal to you through His lovely words. Blessings and beauty to you, dear one.
Song of Songs 2:10-14
Get up, my dear friend,
fair and beautiful lover—come to me!
Look around you: Winter is over;
the winter rains are over, gone!
Spring flowers are in blossom all over.
The whole world’s a choir—and singing!
Spring warblers are filling the forest
with sweet arpeggios.
Lilacs are exuberantly purple and perfumed,
and cherry trees fragrant with blossoms.
Oh, get up, dear friend,
my fair and beautiful lover—come to me!
Come, my shy and modest dove—
leave your seclusion, come out in the open.
Let me see your face,
let me hear your voice.
For your voice is soothing
and your face is ravishing.
We are so in sync! I, too, had to clear out the old foliage and bring in color this year. I love your metaphor that the slate is cleared for the new. Beautiful. You share such color with the rest of us… I hope you can see it within as well. Thanks for sharing, Sara!
Doesn’t it feel good to uproot the old? Even with the bare spots I feel more peace. May Jesus’ peace and hope fill you today as well, Kris!
I am uprooting fear and anxiety and asking God to help me replace them with His peace and an unshakable assurance of His love.
I love the color you’re adding with the flowers!
Jennifer
What beautiful plants His Peace and Love are! May the roots go deep–how He does love you, Jennifer!
Uprooting is a process that leads to restoring new plants we hope would have stable and strong roots – the roots of Spiritual gifts: Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, fear of God, knowledge and piety … for us to be teachable and compliant and walking humbly with our God. What a set of gifted virtues to make us docile. And fruitfulness is expected. In green foliage and colorful flowers! They are the perfecting nature of the Fruit of the Spirit with its wonderful sets of three-some to complete our relationship with God, with neighbors, and with self … beautifully expressed in Micah 6:8: To be just, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. What an “amagracious” Father!
(I crafted that word from “amazing mercy, awesome grace, with the first three letters “Ama” as father in Pilipino, derived from the Spanish “amor” for love)