Crackling

If you squint real closely you can see that the black portion of this bamboo is actually fine little hairs…

it’s velvety soft. This shoot was only about a foot tall the other day, and now it is over four. I am convinced you could sit and watch these things grow! And that’s when it hit me! Wouldn’t it be cool to grow like the bamboo? OK, so maybe not the velvet part, but the change overnight part, so that change is visible to the world.

For several days, this thought has been running through my head, “God meets us where we are to take us to where He is.”

 And oh, how we do need Him to meet us where we are. How often in life, tho’ have I just put a period mid way in that  sentence and am fine just sitting where I am. (insert frowny face here!)

This morning was full of ‘lessons in the labyrinth’. I had to also trim off part of the bamboo that was about 40’ tall and over the roof, so up on the roof I went! 

What a sweet view and such an encouragement to see the progress.   It’s getting there!

After cutting off the bamboo, I pulled the portion (15’ or so) around back. Then went to pick up some other branches and when I came back, I heard a strange crackling sound. If you turn up the volume here you may be able to hear it, too.

Do you hear it? That is the sound of the bamboo leaves shriveling up…dying. Never in my life have I ever heard this! I got chills in the Texas heat! AND the juxtaposition of that butterfly, the visual beauty of it along with the sound of the leaves, was amazing to me! I just stood there, so grateful for this glimpse of creation that God was sharing! God meets us where we are to take us to where He is…He will cut off what needs to go and replace it with the beauty of Life with Him!

Read a quote the other day that said, “Moving on doesn't mean you've stopped caring; it means you can’t change it.” - Rick Warren. Well, sometimes life crackles, sometimes it flits in the breeze and sometimes it shoots up, but whatever it's doing let's step out to where HE is, with the butterflies, of course! 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, “declares the LORD…

Jeremiah 29:11-14a