Hope and Forgotten Irises
Today was a bit of a gift.
After freezing temperatures, salt on the roads, ice on the windshields and even a snow day....we caught a whiff of Spring.
It was partly sunny and it even got up to 57 degrees. In the middle of all this crazy weather, I've had a nasty cold, so the outdoors was calling. I answered.
I decided to do a little "Spring Cleaning" in the yard. Broken branches, windblown debris and even a few rotten pumpkins were among the things I needed to clean up.
As I did so, I started to make a mental list of many projects:
*The ground needing to be cleared for a community garden, for my single moms' group
*The firewood I'll need soon, for the fire pit
*The outdoor chairs that all need a new coat of paint
*The bird feeders that need to be refilled
*The flowerbeds that needed raking to settle down the mulch and dead leaves in them.
I grabbed a rake and begin to smooth out the piles that were a bit windblown, and there they were; the unexpected clusters of green, poking through the greys and browns as if to say..."aahhhhh, finally!"
I was speechless. The shoots of Iris bulbs...that shouldn't even be growing and here's why:
Last year, a business up the street was doing some major redesigning and landscaping. They came across so many Iris bulbs, they started giving them away. A neighbor gave me a bag full. I was so busy that particular day, running errands and walking in the house with arms full, I dropped the bag of bulbs by the back door and honestly, forgot about them.
Several weeks later, while going out the back door, I looked in the bag and the bulbs had started to sprout. On a whim, I haphazardly threw the forgotten bulbs in the ground and tossed a little dirt on top of them. One poor little flower bloomed last summer and I really didn't think I'd see anymore of them.
Today, however proved me wrong. When I raked across the bed, there they were. And as I took a minute to snap a picture, the "Master Gardener" whispered to my heart.
For many of us, January is truly the time of reflections and resolutions. But this year, really represents more than that to me. See, I've decided to renew my hope in some dreams. Dreams I totally had abandoned. I don't know when, or how, or where, but I have hope that many of my forgotten dreams and those I've tossed aside ( and even others have tossed aside ) will sprout forth.
There are so many. For such a long time, I felt like, well.....those bulbs; filled with glorious beauty and talent and potential and purpose if only someone would plant me!!!
But, when God has created such purpose and design in you, no neglect and quite frankly, no rescue ( cue," knight in shining armor" music ) will alter that, unless you let it.
So here I am with ridiculous, outrageous, purpose-filled hope:
"Hisworks Ministries;" where I will use the message of hope for hurting women.
"Blissworks:" where my artsy and creative side will have her own shop and not dread going to work and only surviving...
Singing again
Finally taking my girls to Disneyworld
Living in Europe for a few years
Publishing my book(s)
Meeting Someone
Getting married again
Owning a Jeep
Being able to take my girls shopping
Having a studio
Buying groceries without worrying how the light bill will be paid
Paying the light bill without worrying how I'll buy groceries
And on and on the list could go...
Here's the truth of the matter. When life and dreams and chaos and disappointment bears down, and it seems there is no sustenance from any source, the amazing spiritual DNA, won't lie dormant. The hope won't die. We were created to "break forth like the very dawn." ( Isaiah 58:8a )
What happens in our lives, happens to us, not through us. Our purposes can not be thwarted due to someone else's negligence. Our purpose is found in hope and in the vibrant destiny He planned, before time even unfurled its grasp on our frame. "Your eyes saw my unformed frame; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before even one of them came to be." ( Psalm 139:16 )
At that moment, I felt that peace of knowing my hope is truly built on Him. I know I am no different than many others, whose lives have taken drastically different routes than expected, but God hasn't changed. He knew me then. He knows me now. He is my hope.
Spring is still a few months off, even with a high of 61 degrees predicted for tomorrow. We could very well have snow the first day of Spring. But the season of growth is always upon us. Even in those sunless and thirsty places, the hope of what is to come is our internal and eternal Spring.
After freezing temperatures, salt on the roads, ice on the windshields and even a snow day....we caught a whiff of Spring.
It was partly sunny and it even got up to 57 degrees. In the middle of all this crazy weather, I've had a nasty cold, so the outdoors was calling. I answered.
I decided to do a little "Spring Cleaning" in the yard. Broken branches, windblown debris and even a few rotten pumpkins were among the things I needed to clean up.
As I did so, I started to make a mental list of many projects:
*The ground needing to be cleared for a community garden, for my single moms' group
*The firewood I'll need soon, for the fire pit
*The outdoor chairs that all need a new coat of paint
*The bird feeders that need to be refilled
*The flowerbeds that needed raking to settle down the mulch and dead leaves in them.
I grabbed a rake and begin to smooth out the piles that were a bit windblown, and there they were; the unexpected clusters of green, poking through the greys and browns as if to say..."aahhhhh, finally!"
I was speechless. The shoots of Iris bulbs...that shouldn't even be growing and here's why:
Last year, a business up the street was doing some major redesigning and landscaping. They came across so many Iris bulbs, they started giving them away. A neighbor gave me a bag full. I was so busy that particular day, running errands and walking in the house with arms full, I dropped the bag of bulbs by the back door and honestly, forgot about them.
Several weeks later, while going out the back door, I looked in the bag and the bulbs had started to sprout. On a whim, I haphazardly threw the forgotten bulbs in the ground and tossed a little dirt on top of them. One poor little flower bloomed last summer and I really didn't think I'd see anymore of them.
Today, however proved me wrong. When I raked across the bed, there they were. And as I took a minute to snap a picture, the "Master Gardener" whispered to my heart.
For many of us, January is truly the time of reflections and resolutions. But this year, really represents more than that to me. See, I've decided to renew my hope in some dreams. Dreams I totally had abandoned. I don't know when, or how, or where, but I have hope that many of my forgotten dreams and those I've tossed aside ( and even others have tossed aside ) will sprout forth.
There are so many. For such a long time, I felt like, well.....those bulbs; filled with glorious beauty and talent and potential and purpose if only someone would plant me!!!
But, when God has created such purpose and design in you, no neglect and quite frankly, no rescue ( cue," knight in shining armor" music ) will alter that, unless you let it.
So here I am with ridiculous, outrageous, purpose-filled hope:
"Hisworks Ministries;" where I will use the message of hope for hurting women.
"Blissworks:" where my artsy and creative side will have her own shop and not dread going to work and only surviving...
Singing again
Finally taking my girls to Disneyworld
Living in Europe for a few years
Publishing my book(s)
Meeting Someone
Getting married again
Owning a Jeep
Being able to take my girls shopping
Having a studio
Buying groceries without worrying how the light bill will be paid
Paying the light bill without worrying how I'll buy groceries
And on and on the list could go...
Here's the truth of the matter. When life and dreams and chaos and disappointment bears down, and it seems there is no sustenance from any source, the amazing spiritual DNA, won't lie dormant. The hope won't die. We were created to "break forth like the very dawn." ( Isaiah 58:8a )
What happens in our lives, happens to us, not through us. Our purposes can not be thwarted due to someone else's negligence. Our purpose is found in hope and in the vibrant destiny He planned, before time even unfurled its grasp on our frame. "Your eyes saw my unformed frame; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before even one of them came to be." ( Psalm 139:16 )
At that moment, I felt that peace of knowing my hope is truly built on Him. I know I am no different than many others, whose lives have taken drastically different routes than expected, but God hasn't changed. He knew me then. He knows me now. He is my hope.
Spring is still a few months off, even with a high of 61 degrees predicted for tomorrow. We could very well have snow the first day of Spring. But the season of growth is always upon us. Even in those sunless and thirsty places, the hope of what is to come is our internal and eternal Spring.
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