As I have shared before, due to the quarantine, I have been in my home with no furniture in my living room, foyer, and dining room.
I have become used to it. At first, it was difficult. I am one of those people who like everything in its place, and nothing was in place.
Since I could do nothing inside, I decided I would concentrate on the outside. I set about removing the old landscaping. I removed all the old shrubbery, trees, and mulch. I had a clean slate to work with.
For me, I must take time to look at an area for a few days before I decide what to put back. In addition to that, most stores are still closed so I have not been able to purchase new landscaping.
Now everything has been removed from my yard. And, when my front drapes are open, it looks like my yard is empty and my house is empty.
Hence, the point of this writing.
This weekend, a family member called and said something that initially hurt my feelings. She said, “you have to get your landscaping done, your house looks sad and abandoned.”
Ouch! The last thing I want my home to look like is sad and abandoned. My home has always been a welcoming, peaceful place.
I could not get those words out of my mind. That day, I did not even open my drapes because I did not want my home to look sad and abandoned.
I was pondering those words when the Lord began to show me something.
He showed me this is what transition often looks like.
Websters 1828 Dictionary defines transition as; Passage from one place or state to another; change.
That is what I am experiencing in my house and my yard. It is also something I have experienced in my personal life.
Often, when we experience transition it does not feel good. It may not look good either.
Transition precedes restoration. Before I can create new landscaping, I must remove the old. It is the same in our personal life.
Many times, before we can step into a new place in God, we must also remove the old, or the no longer fruitful.
There are things in all our lives that do not produce fruit. They may have at one time. However, many times when we are moving into a new season, the things that worked before, no longer work.
They must be pulled up and moved out. We simply cannot look back and move forward at the same time. Faith is always moving…forward.
Maybe you find yourself in a place of transition today. Perhaps you feel your life looks sad. It could even be that some think you have been abandoned by God. Trust me. You have not.
I have been there. I have walked through a time of transition and testing to such a degree that people thought God had surely left me. He did not. Not for a moment. I clung tightly to Him and His word and He brought forth the new. Praise the Lord! But before He brought forth the new, I had to be willing to pull up and remove the old. Only then did the new spring forth.
Isaiah 43:19 says, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Friends, I encourage you today to look past where you are right now. Look into the spirit and see the new coming forth.
Concerning Jesus, the Bible says in Hebrews 12:2, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We have all been through times we had an opportunity to feel shame – do not!
We have all traveled paths we wanted to throw in the towel and give up – again, do not!
Just like with Jesus, there is a place beyond this time, a place deeper in God.
Don’t allow how things look now to define you. The new is coming! The transition will end. The restoration will come. Trust God.
This, how it looks today, is only the look of transition. Like Jesus, look beyond it and see the glory that is coming. It will come. It will not tarry. It will surely come.
Meditate on this:
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. Hab. 2:3
