blossoms

One of the things I have loved doing when I see a tree is looking for hearts in the branches… the roots… the bark on the trunk. My kids do it too.

I’ve trained my eye to find these “love notes” that my King has placed in His creation. It is such a beautiful reminder to me that the Creator of the entire universe cares about the details… but, even more importantly, He cares about showing His love to me through these beautiful details.

As spring starts to show up – there is almost nothing that catches my eye more than the incredible blossoms covering the tree branches. We have had a week of nice weather in the Pacific NW and almost every street I drive down is showing the signs that winter is soon coming to an end.

Usually I am soaking in all the beauty of the blossoms on the trees because soon after they show up we end up getting some sort of wind storm that blows them all away. The season of the blossoms is short-lived… so we Oregonians have to enjoy it’s beauty while we can.

This year… I noticed something new.

The hearts that I always find myself searching for in the branches of the trees are becoming more difficult to see… because they are covered up by the blossoms.

It kinda’ made me sad.

I often felt like a little kid on a treasure hunt combing my eyes through the winter branches in the hopes of catching a glimpse of one of these “love notes”.

But… now… I only see blossoms.

Isn’t this how our God is?

Sometimes the way our Lord loves me is with a love that is deep and for my trained eye/heart to see. Look carefully – or you might miss it.

But, other times ~
this love is shouting at me in such obvious ways.
The blessing is so right there!
But, be careful – or you might miss it.

The other day I posted about what I had been learning from Deuteronomy 8… How God uses the times of discipline to prepare us for the blessing.

That’s what these blossoms are illustrating to me today.

We all go through these seasons where we are training our eyes and hearts to see a new depth to the love of Jesus. Usually these difficult “winter” seasons are a time of discipline and growing of our faith.
But, that season isn’t here to stay… and we experience seasons that are filled with blossoms staring right at us too!

I almost missed the blessing of the blossoms this year because I was so focused on the bare winter branches.

“Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.”
Isaiah 43:19

He is doing something NEW!
Don’t miss it!