For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for woe, plans to give you a future full of hope.
Jeremiah 29:11
It's Easter Monday, and I have the day off. Actually, I have most of the week off. It's been awhile since I've had an extended amount of time to think, reflect, and pray about my life. The direction that it is heading.
I am nearing the end of my job at the nature reserve. This saddens me, because I love my job. I really do. I love working with kids, and I love being outside in nature. It figures that I would love combining the two. But, alas, this job is a seasonal one, and so, I will be finishing up my time there at the end of May. I've been applying to jobs for weeks now, with a few interviews, but with no definite results. And so, I continue to search. But also to dream. And wonder where the next step will lead me.
I love great conversations. You know, the ones where you think, "Wow. This is great. I need to write this down!" I just had one of these mini-revelations with a good friend. In this particular conversation, we were discussing the infinite possibilities, and I told her that I feel God calling me in a new direction.
My strengths are very inward: I am inquisitive, meditative, detail-oriented, focused, and deep. These are excellent strengths, don't get me wrong, and having these strengths has blessed me profoundly. But, in the past few months, through my work in education, I have realized that God is calling me to move outward. It's almost as if He is saying, "Alright, Marie. You have mastered one set of qualities. Now it is time to work on something else."
And as I was telling my friend this, an image popped into my head of a flower. A flower starts off as a bud, tightly closed to the outside world. A lot of work goes on inside this bud that we do not see. It is being formed, built up, prepared. And once it is ready, once it has the inside, or the inward mastered, it opens up, and what was hidden is now shared for the world to see.
In the same way, I have been formed and prepared on the inside. Now is the time for me to open up, to share this wonder and joy with the world. To remain closed, and in essence, hidden from the world, would be to reject the Creator's plan for me, and His plan for each of us--to proclaim His glory, and the marvelous beauty of His handiwork.
When a sophomore in high school, my biology class had to create a "bud log". We went outside, found a tree, and picked a bud to watch. Lots of people don't know this, but the buds are actually on the tree through all of winter! We chose buds at the end of fall, and had to go look at them periodically throughout the winter, sketching little pictures and measuring.
ReplyDelete...Sometimes it takes a whole season of our lives to prepare for the grand event, and we may not even realize the preparations that are being made :0)
Oh my goodness, Marie, thank you SO MUCH for this!!! This is exactly what I needed to read right now! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteA Happy and Immeasurably Blessed Easter to you!