Lilley of the field

It’s is 100 th day of school. Students are 100 days smarter. Teachers are 100 days crazier. Little did I know that they would announce A Teacher’s Dream: early dismissal . The snow is coming. Actually the storm is coming- and it even has a name: Leon. It’s kinda funny how they name storms. These poor storms are given a bad rap even before they hit the earth. They are personified in the same way we label ax murders and burglars. This “deadly” storm “assaults” and “slams the south”, “snarls traffic” “leaves thousands stranded,” “roars through the southern United States,” and   “brings disaster”. It’s a “nightmare” out there apparently. Well, just dress him up in orange, snap a mug shot, throw him in jail, and call it a day folks. But I’m just not seeing it. Outside my window, gorgeous, gentle, peaceful snowflakes are floating to the ground creating a blanket of white. This is an assault? a slam? a nightmare? Perspective. I’m sure I could ask the husband ...

Fling wide heaves gates. Let the cool crisp air of the winter and the low sun shining through the trees revive my soul. Let me be the only one walking in the woods. Let me hear the crunch of the frozen earth beneath my boots. Let me laugh, cry, pray, wrestle, and breathe. You are El-Roi. You are the God Who Sees Me.

It happened so quietly and peacefully and yet made me lift my head and think deeply. Why did it fall now? A single vibrant autumn leaf falling quickly from the three branches cut from that tree in our front yard now finding its' home on a table in our house. It brushed the wall on its way down and tapped the floor. It's sound was strangely noticeable on an early, foggy, quiet morning. There was no wind in our house of course. No squirrel shaking those skinny branches. It just did. Did fall at that moment. The shear weight of gravity. It couldn't hold on any longer.  In the moment that followed as I wondered why that leaf fell then, I realized that I am like the branches. There are things I want to hold onto that I just simply can't. I follow the same rhythms as nature. I am created by a wonderful Creator just like the stars in the sky and the leaves on the trees. Sometimes we don't notice those leaves falling. Gusts of wind comes and we know they will be carri...

During my yard word today with Aaron I was struck by the beautiful little things outside in the middle of winter that were such sweet signs of springs that could be easily missed. Aaron wanted to keep working- I was done. So, I grabbed my camera to try to capture some of these gifts. " Behold, I will do something new,   Now it will spring forth;   Will you not be aware of it?   I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,   Rivers in the desert. " -Isaiah 43:19