I know we are still having winter weather, but I just can’t stop day dreaming about flowers, warm breezes, Easter, and a baby girl to be born in April!

So I think it is about time that I brightened up my blog a bit and post a story about new beginnings.

“The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins, he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord,” Isaiah 51:3

It was the early spring of 2008, and I was surveying my new yard.  Our family of eight had moved into this beautiful, older home in the fall.  However, the yard hadn’t been touched in years and was overgrown.  My husband, Chris, had just finished a week of “vacation” spent clearing bushes and brush from our corner lot.  I was amazed at how much he had accomplished.  Still, I lamented over the barren patches of earth the roots had left behind.  I despised the remaining scrubby bushes that Chris didn’t have time to dig out.

“How I wish he could have finished the job!  How I long to see grass growing and flowers blooming!  One of my favorite signs of spring is the delicious smell of lilacs in air.  Lord, how can I get a hold of a lilac bush and get rid of these awful ones?”

Days passed, leaves came forth in the warm sunlight, and I surveyed my yard again.  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  Two of the ugly eyesores had been transformed into lilac bushes!  The tiny lavender buds held the promise of that glorious scent.

“Thank you God that Chris wasn’t overzealous in his yard work after all!”  I prayed with overwhelming gratitude.  God answered in his gentle way.

“You wish that I would remove all the ugly parts of your life.  You even blame yourself that they still remain.  But you don’t judge as I judge.  Under your barren ground there are seeds that will grow!  I have allowed the “thorns” in your life to remain because I know that when the spring season comes, they will bloom and blossom.  Then you will realize that the blessings you had prayed for have been with you all the while in disguise…as a trial.”

God, help me to see my life as you do, full of you promise and potential.