Oh How Far I Still Have To Go!

Life seems to be so insanely busy right now with the end of the semester and finals looming overhead and deadlines with the newspaper and the business magazine quickly approaching that I've just needed some time to work in the yard and get a few projects accomplished.

Now for me, "working" in the yard doesn't really seem like work. It's more play. I love being outside, feeling the sun on my face (or back) and getting my hands dirty transplanting flowers or just moving things around. And since I can only do a few things at a time, major progress rarely happens! But Oh! the sense of accomplishment when it does occur!

So Thursday, I was really needing to take a break. So I went outside to start raking out the flower beds and to clear my mind.

Now, it is common knowledge to those who know me and my yardwork mentality that I loathe and despise the helicopters (or whirlygigs, as they are called in some regions) that fall this time of year from Maple trees. They're everywhere!! And in everything!! And I can get the ponds cleaned out and ready to go for the season only to have to scoop and skim hundreds of those pesky, dreaded spring-time invaders again!

I had just cleaned off the porch only for a strong gust of wind to come along and deposit more of those wretched seed bombs right on my clean porch. It's almost as if they get their target in sight, wait for the signal from their commander and FIRE just as the wind is right. If you can't tell, I was at the point of nearly cursing the things. (Horrible...I know!)

BUT! God had a lesson planned for 'ole Amber.



I was taking a load of leaves and sticks to the back through the field, and it was just as the sun was beginning to set. The light sifting through the maple tree was amazing, beautiful, golden light! A photographer's dream! But another thing caught my eye and stopped me right where I was. Thousands of those little helicopters, the very things I was on the verge of cursing, lit up like tiny little gold beacons in the tall green grass! And I was suddenly struck by God's amazing design! As I scanned the field and all those future maple trees, the Lord gave me a realization! I noticed that almost every one of those things had landed seed down. Heavy side down. And as I continued walking to the back of the field, I realized that they HAD to land that way to take root! The light, feather-like top helped the seed drift in the wind and the pointed heavy end helped to plant the seed within the grass where it could eventually take root and grow!

How amazing is God's design! How intricate - even with something that would seem so simple as a seed! Now this realization goes right along with everything God is showing me about His amazing design during my Anatomy & Physiology class.

Everything points back to a masterful and purposeful Creator!

And there, in that golden sunlight, on the grass next to those very things I was so angry at only moments before, suddenly held such beauty as I was reminded on my Creator! My Father who meticulously designed those seeds so that trees would grow to give the birds of the air a place to nest, oxygen for us to breathe and a place to put my hammock beneath.

Oh how wonderful it is when the Lord transforms my perspective and yet shows me even more of my sin and how much farther my heart still has yet to go.

I hope you are able to get out and enjoy our Lord's wonderful creation this weekend!