We have all been enjoying our glimpses of this new season...
The snow is gone...hopefully for good..
The flowers are poking their little heads out for a breath of Spring air...
The warm sun shining on our faces, as we get out and enjoy this new season...
The birds are building their nests, and the birthing is about to begin...
I for one, forgot how unpredictable, wet, messy and cold this new season can be...until this week.
As the environment around me adjusts ...I find myself internally adjusting as well.
I have experienced the joy, hope, excitement and release that this new season has brought.
Somewhere along the way, I forgot, in the midst of that, how unpredictable my transition can be.
Before the birth of new life comes the stretching...an expansion of me...my heart, my faith, my character....in order that I may be able to incubate what God is about to birth. Some times there are scars left behind from that process...we call them "stretch marks". They can be uncomfortable, or even painful during the stretching process....later, they are just reminders of the life that was contained within us, that we eventually birthed. We might not like the process, or the scars that remain..but they are for a purpose...they actually expand our capacity to carry his promises.
This week has been a stretching time for me...but God is showing me how to ease some of the discomfort of stretching...and He is even showing me some of the growth I have already experienced from past stretchings. I have not been able to see all of this week's victory; but He is showing me the fruit of past victories as I process in a more healthy way. As I turn away from past unhealthy patterns in order to find comfort. He is reminding me that he has taken me through other valleys, and although the stretch marks remain...they are no longer uncomfortable.
He is showing me that, yes a change of season means being stretched, but that He is always faithful, and it is never without purpose.
8 comments:
Thank you Father for your faithfness to us! It brings some comfort, even in the mist of our pain to know that there is some kind of purpose in it. I am so thankful that He can take the ashes of our lives and make them into something new and even beautiful.
Love to you my friend!
You've found a picture of me. How lovely...(NOT!) lol.
I continue to pray for you during this stretching..it is so true that at times you forget/don't expect it that the stretching still continues---(like bedtime..or during times of REST--ouch!)
God bless you as you transition.
I'm with you too..
What a beautiful reminder of the process that a lot of us are experiencing this spring.(in the spiritual)
Thank you Father for all of it..(including the stretch marks)
Love to you Jen
Karen
My first thought when seeing this picture and then reading your blog, was of how if felt at the end of my pregnancies.
I felt like a balloon that one more bit of air would cause my tummy to explode. My skin felt soooo tight and soooo stretched. I think that many of us are in this type of season right now. I do know this - all of the stretching and marking was so worth it all - NO REGRETS ONLY JOY!!
C.S. Lewis writes: "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains."
Hey Roxanne
Good quote from Lewis - Kevin read this to me just this week!
Soooo good, and well written Jen!
Stretch marks are always worth it aren't they?!
I always said that God gets pregnant woman uncomfortable at the end of their last trimester so that they are ready and willing to go through anything to see this child come forth - even labor!!!
I bless your season of stretching! It is unto life!!!!! Yeh God!!!
I have never experienced the physical stretching that you are speaking about...but I feel like I am being stretched in many other ways right now also. Challened, stretched and a sense of conviction many times thru the day. It is hard...but has been worth it every other time this has happened.
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