Thinking

In spite of the frigid temperatures here, the buds on the trees and shrubs have continued to steadily swell. It is especially evident after a rain---everyday there is just a little more there. On my morning walk, my thoughts are drawn to the bare branches and growing buds---among those buds, is there a rebellious soul...like me? Maybe a flighty dogwood that, thinking she is being individualistic and creative, decides “I will put this task (of growing her buds) aside for a while so that I can grow my roots deep into the warm soil. I think it is probably better, especially since it seems easier and more comfortable than reaching my bare little tips out into the cold air.” Then she leans over conspiratorially to her friend, the steadfast redbud, on the pretense of “getting her opinion,” but in reality the dogwood just wants a confirmation of her own decision. What the poor little dogwood doesn't realize is that by putting aside the tasks placed closest to her, she destroys all hopes of a glorious bloom that season. The short window of time for setting and growing the buds that year is lost...forever.

"We look for visions from heaven

 and earth shaking events

to see God's power.

Yet we never realize

that all the time God is at work

in our everyday events

 and

 in the people around us.

 If we will only obey,

and do the tasks that He has placed closest to us,

 we will see Him."

My Utmost for His Highest, February 7

Oswald Chambers