the color GREEN...

i am taken with green these days.  i haven't been able to walk by a window this week without stopping and staring and just TAKING IN all of the GREEN.  i love it.  everything had been so brown and white for so long... and while those are fine colors too... shoot, i just really missed GREEN.  and now, here it is-- everywhere.  and i just love it.

in all of my walking really slowly and staring out of windows today, i have found a question surfacing in my mind-- God created seasons... and seasons have so many different colors.  just when you think you've had enough of the brown and white of winter, comes the shining GREEN of spring.  and when you start to get itchy from the long, hot days of summer, then comes the brilliant colors and crisp weather of the fall.  and then when you find yourself ready to buckle down and hibernate for a while, well that's when the brown branches and white snow come again.  it's all so interesting.  so i found myself wondering... what does this creation say about the Creator who made it? i'm pondering this question...

the first thing that comes to mind is that He must be so creative, so diverse.  he could have just made winter, or just made fall... but He didn't.  He made 4 seasons-- all so vastly different-- and they all come with such regularity.  He's creative... He's fun... He's dependable... but He loves diversity.

second, He knows people.  oh my word, how much do our lives resemble the seasons.  winter can feel long... we burrow and hibernate and feel as "dead" as the brown branches on the trees sometimes... but then somehow, we're renewed, reborn.  and everything becomes green, flowering, alive.  our souls feel set free in new ways, and our growth is visible.  and then like summer, we enjoy, we relax, we rest... we take in the long, steady days and our soul begins to "center."  but then, like the fall, we go even deeper, become even more brilliant, as the green chlorophyll of the leaves of our lives begins to fade and the brilliance of the bright orange, red, yellow that is really within just explodes inside.  our brilliance is visible, alive.... it just shines in a way that no one can miss.

what an amazing Creator... seriously, wow!

and He's so kind.  He knows that we can be impatient creatures and that we need change.  and when we feel like we cannot handle another snowstorm, He sends the sun and the flowers.  and when we're through with the rain, He sends the heat of summer.  and when we've had enough heat, He sends the crisp breezes of fall... and when we want to burrow in a bit, it's time for winter.  he's good, He's kind... and i want to trust Him in every season... because He knows what He's doing.  and even when one season feels long, there is always another one coming... and then another.  it's a beautiful world that He made.