Sitting out in the cool morning on my back porch, hot coffee, Bible and pen in hand.  I'm looking at this tree the neighbors want to cut down because it's an annoyance to them.  Apparently the leaves keep falling in their pool.  It's not in our yard, so it's not our concern.  But I still feel like it's part mine. I love a particular limb on that tree and I watch it change during the seasons.  It's brought me great joy over the years to see summer leaves thin and fall and then...surprise! This most graceful branch with a perfect curl on the end and twigs in just the right place.  It's even more beautiful when the cardinal (we affectionately call him "Little Red") rests there in a mid-winter snow.  So...my heart is sad.  Sad at the thought of someone cutting down that beauty.  I feel a fleeting shadow of what Mary or John might have felt as Jesus carried that cross.  Just a bystander, helpless, without a voice in the matter. Just watching as people who do not see the Beauty but simply find it annoyance, obstructing their Cause, do away with it.  The Tree has done nothing to deserve death.  It's simply grown and flourished and provided shade just as the Father intended.  It has worshiped.  And yet I hear..."Be still and know, Shawna."  Is He not sovereign over the death of this tree? Is He not at work? Does He not have more He wants to accomplish by the sacrifice of those limbs - perhaps the whole tree?  Will He not bring resurrection when we surrender to His sovereign plan?  The neighbors were matter-a-fact.  It will be done.  The tree will be cut off, or die.  I'll probably wince.  I might tear up when my favorite branch falls to the ground.  But I will wait on the Lord.  I will pray for both my neighbors (those who are cutting and those who own the tree) that the Gospel will shine through.  I will look for Beauty in the death.  And I will look for Beauty in all other things.  Perhaps this death will even bring a new perspective of Beauty hiding from me before.  This world disregards and extinguishes that which is Beautiful all the time.  It's my job as His glory-seeker to keep looking for it, keep allowing my life to be it.  He is the Beauty...and He makes all things beautiful in His time.  Ecc 3:11, Ps. 149:4, Is 52:7

tan brown to straw colored

I've lived in a desert region. I know a good dust storm and the importance of irrigating. I know when my curly hair won't bend and I might as well just give up and blow dry it straight for the day.  I know dry.  This summer Michigan has experienced dry. Like drought, dry.  An article talking about lawn care said you know your lawn is in trouble when you see the color of your grass go from tan brown to straw colored. My husband and I kind of chuckled at the beginning of the dry spell...like "Is there really a difference?"  Well, friends...there's a difference. I saw it today.  Patches of our grass were definitely straw-colored vs. the tan brown.  Everything is so, so dry.  Even my ivy is getting crispy. There's a sense of urgency in getting the sprinkler out there.  Before we could get by without watering. We could rely on the shade of trees, the dew of the morning, a sprinkle here and there.  But not today. The conditions of no rain and high heat have withered the fruit of the earth.  Water is unconditional for survival. If we do not soak the ground and garden now, the harvest may be lost.
The more I walk with Jesus, the more I feel the growing dryness of my soul when I do not spend time drinking and filling my cup on the banks of His River.  His presence.  As the body shows signs of dehydration, so follows my soul.  Instead of a dry, cotton mouth, a headache or fatigue, I see His Life Flow withering...more selfishness, criticism, negativity, self-pity...no fruit.  Ahhhh...but when I sit at The River in prayer. When I stand under the shower of His Word.  When I listen to Streams of Truth from the Spirit...then my soul gets chills in the Soak. I am revived. I feel life and perspective and the hope of Fruit and Harvest again.  I need Water like my grass needs the sprinkler.  And I cannot rely on the "shade of the occasional sermon", the "dew of a worship song", a "a sprinkle of the Word" here or there.  Oh! May I heed the warning signs of a tan-brown spirit! May I stay so connected to the Water Source that I am ever-green.  In seasonal droughts like this one you can always tell which neighbors have a well as their water source.  Those of us with city water have to pay to sprinkle...and so we don't until necessary.  Those with a well have lawns that are lush, green, soft and tender even in the midst of intensely arid, hot, harsh days on end.  God's children have a Well....we just have to stay connected to it.  We have to draw from it...every day. Every. Day.  May the God who refreshes our souls remind us to come to Him. Before we get brittle.  Especially when we are brittle.  He restores. He renews. He waters. He fills.  I don't know about you, but I think I'm feeling like I could use a drink :)

Grace and peace,
shawna