Leave it to Him....Lessons are Everywhere

This morning I went prayer walking during my extra hour of Daylight Savings Time. I went because I was feeling particularly sinful and down and sunlight is one of the things that cheers me up most! It’s amazing how quickly God can change my attitude through nature, physical movement, and prayer.

On the way home, I was looking at the trees and thinking about how it’s God that changes the colors of the leaves. It struck me not that it was Him that controls leaves changing colors, but that the whole process is gradual. First the leaf is green and then slowly but surely it turns to yellow or orange or red. It’s not like one day the leaf is totally green and the next day---KABOOM!----it’s totally yellow.

I think God changes us a lot like he changes the colors of the leaves: gradually. We aren’t in the pit of despair one day and wake up the very next day feeling completely, authentically joyful. We aren’t ridiculously prideful one day and then thoroughly humble the next. Change and healing take time. A lot of times there are still remnants of our old ways and thinking patterns that show up in our lives, like the green vein lines in the yellow leaf I found on my walk. When a little bit of my old self peeks through, I need to remember that God has already begun to change my coloring (to be more like Jesus) and he’s not finished with me yet! Furthermore, I am predominately a new color (yellow, in this case!); the green vein lines don’t define me as much as my new self or new color does. If anything, they can remind me of how far I’ve come/how different I am than I once was.