I was introduced to the singer/ songwriter Nicole Nordeman my junior year of college, at Wheaton. The concert she gave was one of the fondest memories I have at that school and it left me a changed person. I was listening to one of her songs tonight, called Every Season, and it got me thinking. The words are profound if you really think about them and they depict the journey that I have been on this last year... the journey I am still on.
Every Season
Every evening sky an invitation to trace the patterned stars
And early in July a celebration for freedom that is ours
And I notice You in children's games and those who watch them from the shade
Every drop is full of fun and wonder.
You are Summer
And even when the trees have just surrendered to the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late september and sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins and I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and what's to come
You are Autumn
And everything in time and under Heaven finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white all creation shivers underneath
And still I notice You when branches crack and in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death You open doors for life to enter
You are Winter
And everything that's new has bravely surfaced teaching us to breathe
And what was frozen through is newly purposed turning all things green
So it is with You and how You make me new with every season's change
And so it will be as You are re-creating me
Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring
Emphasis is mine in bold, but what an incredible journey and song!
- The celebration we had yesterday, 4th of July, was sweet for me, being that it was my first one as an American citizen. Just coming from making sweet memories with my niece and nephews a few weeks ago, words can't describe the love and joy I got from watching them make up games and dance in the rain on Father's Day
- I miss the days of living in Wheaton and seeing the incredible season's change. God is so creative in the colors he paints with in autumn. I was braced for a cold and hard winter...
- I didn't even know to what depths I was going to have to go to finally get to the bottom of things, but I can see now how I was braced for it. Thank you, Lord. God cracked me open this winter, but praise His HOLY name, He has brought NEW LIFE!
- He has taught me to breathe, and what was frozen through, is no longer frozen, but it's a new life. I am so thankful for a re-creation, after realizing for the first time what it means to truly die to one's self.
I still sit here and truly offer thanks for "What has been and what's to come."
God is so good in the lessons that He chooses to lead us through. I have been going through an interesting learning path and keep hearing / reading about death, but not a physical death. Death to self, death to ego.
John 15:1-5
"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing."
Thank you Lord for cutting of the branches of death in my life. Thank you for pruning the others. And most of all thank you for new life.
I am new because of Jesus Christ!
And so I continue on this journey...
