One of my favorite times of year is Spring! Suddenly the flowers begin blooming and they color our world with beauty. In the midst of all the brown and green there is a burst of color. If you really want to experience it, go visit a flower field. The beauty of it takes your breath away. You get lost in a sea of beautiful flowers that you can stare into for hours.
Before those flowers came out of the ground, there had to be preparation. The ground had to be dug up and the soil had to be prepared for the seed. Then they had to have plenty of sun and water to help them grow. Once all the work was done, the grower got to see the fruit of their labor. Beautiful colorful flowers blooming out of the ground.
Our hearts are like the soil beneath the flowers. It’s in the digging up the soil of our hearts that God cultivates us. Through our pain, we are able to see and hear things in a different way. Our vulnerability takes us to a place where we understand our need for God. It’s where we seek him on a different level. It’s where he shapes us and moulds us. His most beautiful work in us is done through our struggles.
Maybe you’re in a season like me where it’s just hard. It feels like life is pressing down on you and you have to fight a little harder than normal because circumstances seem overwhelming. It’s hard to even talk about because you’re dealing with an internal battle and you don’t quite have the words or maybe you feel like no one would fully understand.
I want you to know it’s ok if you’re struggling and can’t quite get it together. God works best in our messiness. The breaking of you is really the making of you. You are God’s masterpiece, his workmanship, his beautiful daughter! He formed you in your mother’s womb and knows everything about you. But he spends our lifetime working on us to prepare us for all that is ahead and to form us into all he made us to be. It’s done in the dark, through the pain, the hurt, the struggle and the wanting to give up. He knows what’s ahead of us, he knows the joys and struggles we will face and he works in us to prepare us for all of it.
Even though it hurts right now and we don’t understand it, God can be trusted. Remember he saves all your tears in a bottle, he knows exactly how many hairs are on your head, he bends down to listen as you pray and his thoughts about you outnumber the grains of sand. Now that’s love! He doesn’t want to see you hurt, but he knows the importance of the heart, the soil, the preparation, and would never leave you just the way you are because he knows all you can and will be.
God’s love of his is so vast, it cannot be measured. We will never be able to fathom how much he loves us. But we understand it a little more when we are hurting and he’s the only one who could soothe our souls. If you could see what God did in you through the struggle, you wouldn’t change a thing, except seeking him more. The greatest beauty in a soul is formed in the dark places when God is the light, the hope and the ultimate healer.
Friend, you’re on your way to greater things and a better and more beautiful you. Keep fighting, keep seeking, keep knocking, God is listening and he will bring you through. Let him be your source, the one you run to. If we saw the end of our story we would understand the process and we would be delighted at the results, just as he is delighted with us.
