taking care

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.  Make them known to your children and your children's children."  Deuteronomy 4:9




Many times we let the weather dictate our posture in life...

This little tree.  Alive in our soil for over 6 years now.
A late frost came early in its development and stunted its growth.
It's not been the same since that bitter night.
Still blooming each spring but NEVER shooting up.

So sad... a tree so lovely... hindered.

Isn't that true for most of us?
One incident and we get stuck...
Binded roots...
Truths of who we are meant to be become...

Out of focus...

Even with HOPE in the backdrop we choose to die a slow death...

A little sprout covered in a sea of green... lost and almost unseen.  It refuses to grow.

God's people must remember His truths in the midst of the bitter cold.  We must be firmly rooted and remain under the protection of His cloak.  

It is Him that helps us weather the elements.  

We must take care... guard with diligence.

I wonder and pray over this one often...

Her story so filled with pain and fight.  It's enough to break the tender reed.

Shock is a symptom we endured for quite sometime...

It still shows its face from time to time... 

I am tempted to cringe at the remembering... He invites me to rest in the retelling... 

Lest my eyes forget....

His light of redemption... faithfully shining in our faces and our stories... 

Oh... 

He doesn't want us to just sit still...complacency our only growth...

Stunned by life... stunted by shock...

He wants us to remember deep deposits worth more than gold...

Little hands beholding big promise.  

Growth... slow but eminent... 

Charli will be an expert of her story.  She will know the treasure of every detail.  She will have visions of life with her brothers... reminders of sacred spaces once shared...  

She will ache... and she will grow.

Like our whole family... she will declare... to her children and to her children's children.  God is good.  He can be trusted no matter the inclement.

Frost... it is sure... 

But... if we abide... His covering will protect, and the thawing will bring the most beautiful of blooms.

All the days of our lives... through all storms... we must REMEMBER... His faithfulness...

Continuing through ALL GENERATIONS...

Taking care today... 

Keeping my very soul...

Lest I forget and reflect the bitterness born in the sad little tree at Hope's house...

Praying with expectancy for innumerable blooms... offering His fragrance not just to the generations... but the NATIONS as well.