Spring. It showed up via the calendar this weekend but the weather hasn’t agreed since last Monday. We had such nice, mild days throughout December and January but this last week, winter felt like it returned with a vengeance. Winter also returned in my soul as our world has ground to a halt. We have been asked to voluntarily stay away from others due to the coronavirus, it's been raining non stop and I miss my friends. The sun didn’t come out, but the temperature warmed enough for the kids to go play outside so I grabbed my large clippers and set to work cutting out some vines and branches along our path to the pond.
After working a while, I meandered back up towards the house and strolled along the split-rail fence that borders our yard from the wooded embankment. While I love just about everything in nature (except ticks), I loathe these thorny vines that grow up right alongside everything beautiful. It seems like they grow 10 times faster than anything else and they definitely wreak havoc to your skin if you’re caught unawares. Clippers in hand, I took to snipping away the thorny sprouts that try to ‘jump the fence,’ because as Barney Fife says ‘you’ve got to nip it in the bud.’ About halfway through, I looked up and noticed some white flowers starkly contrasting against all the winter brown yet entangled in vines. I hopped the fence and started cutting away at the stalks one at a time. Four or five cuts and then I would wrap my leather-gloved hand around their bases and walk backwards, hop the fence and pull them free them from the mass. Four more cuts then repeat. 45 minutes, sweat-soaked and a few scratches later, I stepped away to see a beautiful sandplum tree that had been hidden beneath those vines. I have walked past that section for three years now and never noticed that tree growing underneath all that weight. As I worked, my mind kept repeating a verse I had memorized long ago. “Let us strip off the sin that so easily entangles us.” Hebrews 12:1. My thoughts overwhelm me of what that truly means: freedom. God keeps impressing freedom on me this year. Revealing ways I am still so easily entangled in thoughts and habits that keep me tripped up or weighed down. Standing back and viewing that beautiful tree, I can’t help but think of how much will it grow this year now that it’s free. What joy and hope it brings me now that I can see its flowers. Having so much of life turned upside down right now, those areas of entanglement can easily overwhelm us. Is it fear or anxiety? Is it over eating banana bread or binge watching good (or bad) shows? Is it obsessively cleaning? Is it crafting or projects or distractions? Is it anger or frustration with those in your home? Maybe, it’s depression because you feel all alone. I don’t know what trips you up or what has you weighed down but I know you can be set free. Jesus offers hope in the midst of fear. He offers love when there’s anger and frustration. And he offers peace when it feels like the world is in chaos. He has a plan for each one of us. Within that plan you are created to grow and bloom and bear fruit even when it still feels like winter. Taking out those vines was hard work. It wasn’t without pain, even the tree lost a lot of blooms and some branches from all the tugging and stripping away. But most of all, the tree couldn’t do it without me, it needed a savior. I needed Jesus to set me free from my death penalty of sin and I still need Him today to set me free from all that entangles me. So while the world stops and my perfectionist brain screams ‘work,’ my heart is choosing to yield to the loving hands that are setting me free. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said, ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ -Eustice (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
3 Comments
Michele Panter
3/24/2020 07:34:54 am
Shauna this is such a beautiful picture of how God has freed us and continues to free us from all that entangles us! I love how so often in life the Lord uses the things around us to teach us about Him. I really loved how after you had cut back the thorny vines it was then that you saw the plum tree. Such a beautiful analogy! As we surrender our entangled selves to the Lord and allow Him to cut out all that entangles us may we see with His eyes the beauty that lies beneath and the flowers that are growing! Love this friend!!! ❤️❤️❤️
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Annemarie
3/30/2020 04:54:41 am
I love reading your blog. You have such depth and insight; you help me see my shortcomings, places where God is gently correcting me.
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Tilesa Robinson
8/16/2020 09:45:25 am
I am a new follower. I just finished reading part 4 of ‘The Shadow of My Porch Swing’ devotionals and I am amazed at how much God showed me through reading them. You’re awesome! God bless. ♥️
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The Shadow of My Porch SwingYou will usually find me on my porch swing or trying to get there at least. Warm drink in hand and the best view in the world...4 boys digging a hole. Seriously tho, I enjoy the chance to sit and rest but mostly ponder the life that happens in between each of those sways of that swing. As the sun rises and sets, the shadow of that swing moves across my porch reminding me that Jesus is always shining on each moment. May you find hope and rest in Jesus here. Archives
September 2021
CategoriesBible App DevoPartnering with YouVersion and The Bible App, The Shadow of My Porch Swing - 7 day devotional is now available in the Plans section of the Bible app. Click link above or search by title or 'God's Presence.' |