Faded Flowers

As a "girly girl"  I am attracted to trendy clothes, cute shoes, sparkles,pearls,  animal prints and Volkswagen Beetles!  I don't know what it is exactly about the VW Beetle (specifically the green ones) that grabs my attention.

Perhaps it is the retro look that causes me to look twice.  I love everything about it including the cute and quirky  bud vase on the dash of each one.  Whenever I see a Beetle I always peer inside to see what is stuck in the bud vase.  Many use the dash vase to hold a fun pen or a small American flag.  Most often it is used for its intended purpose-a bud vase which holds brightly colored flowers.

Recently I parked my car beside a Beetle and glanced inside to check out the vase.  It held 2 flowers that I am certain at one point had been beautiful and vibrant in color, however they were now extremely faded.  Their vibrant hue had washed into something that barely resembled their former glory.  The elements  had beat down upon the flower and changed the flower forever.

As I looked at the faded flowers I began to wonder if we are often like those faded flowers.  At one point we are "bright and beautiful" with hopes and dreams and so much potential, but then life happens.  It beats down on us like the sun on the flowers.  Our "elements" come in the form of martial problems, financial struggles, health problems, being thrust into the role of care-giver, infertility, loss of a job, death of a child or family member, a wayward child-the list could go on and on.  Somehow things just didn't turn out like we thought they would and just like the flower we feel like we will never be the same.  Life has sapped everything out of us and we do good to just get through the day.  Somehow our life just doesn't resemble the abundance God said His children were suppose to have.

In John 10:10 Jesus says,

"  I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly."

The Message translation says,

 "I come so they can have real and eternal life more and better than they every dreamed."

Now that is exciting stuff!! our God created a perfect world-one free from all those problems that steal our joy, but because of pride man chose to do what he thought was best for him instead of living according to God's way.  Because of this we live in a broken world, with broken plans and broken dreams.  We experience troubles and disappointments.

So we ask ourselves how can we have life, more and better than we ever dreamed?  Abundant life comes only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  There is absolutely no other way!  We, however,  need to understand that we can be a Christian and still miss out on the abundance He has for us.

God told us that in this world we will have trouble (John 16:33).  The problem is that we get consumed with our struggles (which, by the way, is exactly what the Enemy wants us to do) and they become bigger than our God.  There have been days that I have been so focused on my disappointments that if my life is indeed like the flower-then I was fading fast.

One thing I know- no matter how big our struggle our God is BIGGER.  Nothing happens to me that does not  pass through His hand first.  We need to trust God to take our struggles and shape us to be more like Jesus.  We need to take those struggles and situations that have caused us to fade and see them as opportunities for not only growth, but to show His love to others going through similar situations and  disappointments.

God's grace, His freely given undeserved favor and love is available for us and is sufficient for all we are going through.  That doesn't mean our circumstances will change, but it does mean that in our circumstances WE will be changed.  Instead of holding on to the disappointments of our past we can release them and trust and allow our mighty God to change us.  I am reminded of the verse from Jeremiah 17:7-8.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes;its leaves are always green, it has not worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

When life beats down on us like the sun on that tree-when we have a time of personal drought-if we will just send our roots into the water, the Living Water, Jesus Christ and draw from His never ending supply then we will experience life "more and better" than we could ever dream as He produces His fruit in us.

Isaiah 61:3 says Christ came to give us a "garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair" and that we are to be a "display of His splendor".  We need to get to the point that we can praise God in the midst of our disappointments.  Christ wants to replace our "it didn't turn out like is was suppose to " life with a much more beautiful life and a more beautiful hope than we could ever imagine, not only for now, but for eternity---a display of His splendor!!!