Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sunday Thoughts


I looked out the window yesterday and was so thrilled because our little lilac bushes are blooming!! I just love lilacs and we have several bushes that we planted a few years ago around our property.  The first year the bunnies got to them but they persevered!  The second year the grasshoppers ate them to a little nub, but they persevered!  Now they are getting quite large and each and every one of them is blooming!! 


This is very much like what happens to us in life.  We get chewed by the bunnies, nearly destroyed by the grasshoppers, but we have hope! We can still bloom!!  


My favorite Scripture Romans 5:1-5 and it says, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we not stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, be we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us."


God uses our bunny chewings and our grasshopper nibbles to grow perseverance in us, which produces character, which produces hope! Isn't it wonderful that all these things make us better and like our little lilac bushes, we bloom! Not only that, all those chewings and nibbles on the plant have produced lilac bushes that are fuller and have so many leaves.  If we will just really submit to the Lord and allow Him to work in our lives through the hard times, we will come out fuller and more joyful! It's hard to imagine it while we are going through the hard times but I know from personal experience that it's better to go through these things with the Lord than without the Lord. 


My husband took me outside yesterday and we cut several sprigs of lilac blooms and several irises. I brought them in and arranged them in one of my beautiful white vases and put them by my recliner on the table. The lilacs smell so heavenly and make me think of the sweet fragrance of Christ.  

Have a blessed Lord's day!!


God bless you - Julie

2 comments:

  1. Very good word picture...your lilacs are beautiful and such an encouragement to all of us that God prunes us and brings us into more fullness and beauty.

    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady :)

    ReplyDelete

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