My husband and I were talking last night about how much change has gone on in our lives in the past 5 months. Everything from single to married, address changes, church changes, relationship changes, ministry changes, job changes, health insurance changes, car insurance changes, to the way the laundry is done changes. Trust me I'm only beginning to scratch the surface with these few. It's almost humorous how many of those things have happened all at once. No wonder we feel like we are losing our minds at times. God has us in a unique and yet very beautiful season of life. We are just now beginning to enjoy the process. It is so evident that God works in our lives through process, taking time to carefully mold us and refine us to what we need to become for His glory. I'll admit I do not always cooperate well, sometimes not at all. Growing up in America and in my generation we have learned to have things at our finger tips within seconds or minutes. It doesn't work that way with the most beautiful things in life. Things of beauty and value come with much time and preparation, and sometimes evolve slowly. God is a God of process and He doesn't do things instantly or on our timetable. I think of the gorgeous sunrise and sunset we see here on the eastern shore. The start and end of the day could have happened instantly. Instead, God chose to use a PROCESS to start and end each day, with the sun rising and setting. The sun slowly appears, creating a splendor each morning and if the sun isn't visible, the daylight hours still begin with gradually unfolding beauty. The same is true at the end of the day. Each evening God paints the sky differently and as I watch it over a period of 45 minutes the painting changes constantly. I'm glad God is a God of process when it comes to beginning and ending each day and that He doesn't instantly turn the light on and off because it is in the process that the beauty is evident. So I know that even though I don't always like the process in my own life, there is more beauty in my life through the process than if I grew, changed, and learned instantaneously. I think of a butterfly and the what looks like a painful process it must go to in order to become this beautiful butterfly, that experiences a completely different level, fly compared to laying on the ground, all because it has gone through a timely process.
We stop by a friends house on Saturday evening, their little three years old girl asked me to come upstairs and see her room. I followed her as she was so excited to show me. After spending some time there, the little girl climbed on my back as we started to head downstairs. Her head was buried straight into my back and she remarked, "I can't see where we are going, you're so tall Tracey" I laughed and then she goes, "but it's ok, I'll just ride back here." I could feel her body relax as she simply held onto me knowing that I'd take her where she needed to go. My thought in that moment turned to God. That is what God desires for me....to hang on tight to him...to be totally relaxed...even though I can't see ahead of me at all...but at ease because I know and trust Him. There are many hero's I admire when I read the Bible, men and women who have been faithful and trusted God as He has taken them through a sometimes painful, sometimes long, something joyful processes. God is helping me to realize that the process is BEAUTIFUL!
