Transforming...

It's on my bucket list.  I plan to have my own greenhouse someday.  That should be no surprise to anyone who really knows me. 

In college, my dorm window was lined with plants.  Some were also placed on the shelf behind the bed.  After marriage, I enjoyed decorating our home with plants.  Owning our home, we enjoy planting flowers and trees outside.  I love watching, nurturing and working with plants.  

There comes a time, however, when some of the plants die.  Others, such as my citrus trees and ferns, go through seasons of transformation.  It isn't always easy to watch what was once beautiful and bountiful lose much so that new growth will appear.

Life is quite similar.  How wonderful and welcoming it is when new life arrives in the birth of new couples, new families and new babies.  We are always amazed as new life unfolds.

As we have also witnessed, there comes a time when life changes as we know it.  Loved ones become ill and leave this world much sooner than we anticipated.  Some leave unexpectedly.  Some leave after enduring much suffering.  It's never easy. It never seems to make sense.

Yet watching leaves wither or vibrant flowers fall, I am reminded that new life does return.  What once seemed dormant or dead shows new signs of life and beauty.  It is not that visible when we watch loved ones fade into the arms of Jesus.  Saying farewells is heartwrenching and lifechanging.  I have faced it many times.  I will face it again. I know the depths of grief all too well.

But in His time, through His love, sacrifice and power, I know there is hope...eternal, healing, never hurt or cry again...lasting hope.  I could not handle the loss of countless family and friends over these years if I did not believe that with all my heart.  He brings beauty into this life. I can only imagine the incredible, eternal and unfathomable joy He will share in the next one. 

Yes, there is a time to love and live here.  I will praise Him for each breath and opportunity now.  Yet I will remember when difficult times of sorrow and pain fill my heart, that this is not all there is to life. He will transform sorrow into joy, healing to the hurting and new blessings to the broken.  May He be the center of my life now...and forever...in His time.♥~thl

"a time to be born and a tine to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot..."  Ecclesiastes 3: 2