Celebrate Transformation

“For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.

For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.”

Edwin Way Teale ~
Naturalist, Photographer, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author

~

Indications of fall’s transformation begin to accumulate. 

Canadian Geese appeared on the pond, thousands of miles from their home. Two pair, regally adrift on the water’s surface, robust rounded torsos fitted with elegant long necks to facilitate their alert attention. Their gazed followed me with all confidence and mild interest as I passed slowly along the bank. I marvel imagining the distance that I know they have traveled, pondering where they may have “stopped over”  the last time they rested. I address them with soft words of welcome, compliment their migratory feat, and offer travel mercies for the journey still ahead. Within days they are gone. 

Crisp mornings welcome long sleeves pulled from the back of the closet and vapor rising from mugs of hot tea. 

A myriad of seeds and acorn varieties litter the paths, popping as my step breaks numerous shells. 

The first hues of mustard, old gold, school bus yellow build at the edges of hedge rows and tree tops. Nature begins to shed in brilliant golden showers.  

The neighbor’s produce garden looks leggy, over grown. Spindled stems and yellowing leaves serve as scaffolding for spider webs spanning across the rows.

The sun’s rays rise later and its angles fall differently. Briefly the moon burns blood red.

In this season, nature is transformed; widely opening its hand to disperse hope for the next generation and offer sustenance for a darker season. 

How like the transformation that God wills for own lives. 

In collaboration with Him and by His grace, 

as faith grows, the elements of 

generosity {Duet. 15:11}, 

gratitude {Ps.111:1}

love {Lev. 19:34},

joy {Ps. 90:14},

patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control {Gal. 5: 22-23} 

transform our character and therefore, the living of our days. Widely opening our hands to disperse hope and offer sustenance to others.

Linking with Soulful Friday, Still Saturday, and Weekend Whispers. :-)

A Heart at Peace

“A heart at peace, 

gives life to the body.”

Proverbs 14:30

Warmer seasons come late, seeping in around winter’s greedy grasp. Leaves gingerly appear, testing the possibilities, braving winter’s many backward glances. 

The air is brisk or warm, brightly lit or misted and grey, but sampled no less, as human hearts yearn for an opportunity to be out in the newly unfolding world. 

Encourage the mind to cast out winter’s narrowed ponderings, to fling open verandas of new color, richer scents, and softer views. Human flesh, feathered birds, furred critters; all venture hopeful as temperatures slowly offer up hints of warmth. 

A walk along the pathways reveals scars of winter’s passing. Scars of cold are scratched into fencing and bark alike. The new season unfurls its green to cover such with foliage and distract the eye with vivd blooms. 

Willingly, I focus on the beauty, looking past the marred, the fallen, and the wounded; for the natural world redeemed by spring brings joy. 

And thus I am reminded, how God’s redeeming work over wounded souls also gives rise to the heart’s joy.

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Adornment of Inner Self

Evergreen boughs bear clusters of beautiful pale blue berries all through the winter. In twilight their color is accentuated, a heavenly hue. Branches hang low at the point of the berries heaviest abundance. 

Arctic gales blow hard across the months of this season, shearing the blue orbs, spilling them to the ground like pearls from a broken string. The female Cedar loses the tiny bits of her adornment with every gust of wind, every icy freeze, and every pelting rain. 

The loss does not diminish the value or the character of this tall spire. She extends her branches with or with out their pale blue adornment. Creatures – winged, footed, or slithering perch, burrow, and huddle within its massive frame. Standing sure, standing strong, standing quietly across the years; simply offering the gentler gifts of refuge, shade, and shelter. 

Prudently placed in the flood plain of frequently overflowing creek beds, the voraciously thirsty Cedar absorbs the over abundance of flooding waters following every storm. This towering life quietly serves her divinely designed purpose within the ecological community through the workings of her quiet, unseen, inner life. 

Season after season I walk past her. A guardian at her post. Season after season, God’s creation provides examples for human living. Here, through a living tree, the words of 1 Peter are given roots. Her berries are attractive, yet transitory. Cedar's deeper life contains the greater portion of her beauty and purpose. A living creation to emulate.

Let your adornment be your inner self,

with a lasting beauty 

of a gentle and quiet spirit.

1 Peter: 3-4

*The Cedar Berry tree of the southwest is technically a species of Juniper.

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Every Perfect Gift

Drifted trails lace across the high desert terrain. Packed crystals underfoot join the hush of rushing winds in this natural sanctuary. Looming mountain majesty rises to the east. Heavenly majesty rising higher still. 

While at my feet frozen shells of seed and stem bare spires of sculpted intricacies. Spires transformed through the ordained participation in the eco-bound living of earth rooted life. Living to completion through the Creator’s bounty. Life transformed, unexpected in its earliest germinal form, now boldly complete and visible to all the world. Transformed to perfection through the living and the grace filled hand.

May you linger a bit, 
gaze long at glinting crystals, 
breath crisp air deeply, 
and count God's gifts in winter's display of perfection.
Lisa

My meditation and thoughts were influenced by :
~James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
~James 1:4 Let perseverance finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 
~Telios (Greek) - Perfect, “that which has achieved of reached its goal, objective, purpose” and therefore, “full grown” and “fully developed”. Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible. 

               

Transforming Water to Wine, A Battered Heart to Wholeness

"Transformation" Lisa Moreland, Oil on canvas, 2009

I inserted a new element to the still-life that we were painting. As the instructor came by my easel she asked, “Why would you want to add a cross?”. “It represents miracles.”, was my audible response. “So many.”, was my soul’s gratitude-filled response. 


Certainly the original one, Jesus’ first, to the delight of wedding guests in Cana that day. Jars of water transformed to the highest quality wine. And certainly all the other recorded miracles that transformed disease to health, repugnant living to second chances, hunger to feasting, and persecution to freedom. A singularly holy gift of transformation was offered that day. A gift that would reach across centuries and into human souls world wide. A wine-red redemption offered by the sacrifice of Christ.

My gratitude-filled soul knows well the work of this holy transformation. Adversity after sin, sin followed by vengence reigned down year after year, loss upon loss. An beaten and battered heart barely crawled across the living that still had to be done.  The Holy Spirit remained true. Our Lord remained vigilant. Angels were sent. Face to the floor prayers were heard and worked out by our Lord across across the years, bearing miracles. Miracles of restoration, a return to wholeness, and gifts unexpected.  

Today the listing of gifts includes these, the transformed water, saved soul variety of holy blessings. Amen

846 ~ deep gratefulness for being transformed by daily encounters with Christ

847 ~ gratitude Lord that you could make something beautiful out of all this suffering

848 ~ thanksgiving Lord for being more than the sum of my past mistakes

849 ~ gratitude Lord for your power within me that enabled me to endure and overcome more than I could ever imagine ~ Eph. 3:20

850 ~ gratitude for the spiritual nourishment offered as adversity is overcome ~ Rev. 2:17