Changes

When I first started blogging I did a post on an old boxelder tree of ours. Our boys thought it was an eyesore. My husband loved it for the fact that it housed so much wildlife through the years. It was a tree that refused to die and seemed to have confusion over the fact it was a tree rather than a tall bush.

My husband decreed the tree would stay till the dead part fell over. It was up to God when that would occur and he (my husband) would not hasten that day. This past September, the decreed time came to pass. We were sitting on the porch one morning during my recuperation period and suddenly noticed that this event had happened.

We have no idea exactly what day it happened. We just know that by September 16 the majority of the tree was down. It was a little sad to know that there would be no more squirrels raising families in that tree. Owls, hawks and eagles would no longer perch in the top part of those dead branches.

We will miss those days of watching the animals that used that dead tree. We should probably have counted the varieties of animals that actually used it for a home or just a resting place. Everything from squirrels, woodpeckers of all types, wood ducks, geese, eagles and more have used it.

I have found out this past year that life can change as quickly as a tree falling over. One week you are healthy….the next months you struggle to regain what disappeared in a flash. Families change…..parents make life changing moves to a new residence and it is hard on the entire family. Children get married and it is a wonderful celebration. Life is such a mix.

This year of 2018 is quickly….way too quickly…coming to a close. Looking back, it is hard to believe how many things are not what they were a year ago. Some are better….some are worse. I have a feeling that is just how life is and it is okay.

This Thanksgiving our devotion was on being content in any circumstance. It asked us if we would be content if God said “No” to our prayers….or “Wait”. I would love to answer that I am always content, but that would be a lie. I will say I strive to be content.

There are things I would love to change as quickly as the wind pushes a tree over. I would love to be as I was before West Nile. And then I need to remember how long that tree withstood every storm that came it’s way. It is good to step back and see the blessing in the wait.

The tree was a great lesson on waiting…on contentment. It was in no hurry to fall. While it waited it was useful and in it’s seeming deadness it housed so much life. It is a lesson I can learn. A lesson that there can be a contentment in the wait. A lesson that even though I am not at 100 percent I can still be useful.

Now that our tree is no longer there for those life lessons I am beginning to look around and wonder what part of creation God is going to use next to teach me those life lessons? I have a feeling there will always be something that will be used to teach….as long as I open my eyes.

May you be blessed in the waiting this weekend. May you be content in the changes that life brings.

 

Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.     

John Ortberg