Monday 4 November 2013

Finding Life

I had been having a terrible week, you know the kind of week where everything you touch seems to shrivel and die.  It made me want to curl up under my duvet and not rear my head for about a decade, I was just so fed up.  I'm quite an emotional person and it takes a lot of conscious effort for me to not be ruled by how I'm feeling.  When carrying out daily activities is hard work then I know I'm about at the point where I've had enough.

So, I was having one of those weeks.  I'd just got off the phone to my husband telling him the latest things which had turned belly up for us and I went outside into the garden to get some fresh air.  


Over the summer I had planted various things and tried to grow them, without success.  I am not green fingered in the slightest and at the moment my garden bears witness to this.  It looks kind of like a plant graveyard actually, with black and wizened strawberry plants and flowers and things littered around.  One of the things I had tried my hand at was a tomato plant.  I had successfully got the plant part to grow but it hadn't produced any kind of fruit before it too had succumbed and died.


I was wandering around the garden feeling sorry for myself when I noticed a flash of red out of the corner of my eye.  I headed over to the plant pot and there, hanging off a very dead looking stem was a bright red tomato.  I couldn't believe it, how on earth had the tomato managed to grow when everything around it was dead and dying?




God spoke to me as I was standing there in wonder looking at this tomato and trying to prevent the dog from eating it.  He reminded me that He is the restorer, He takes what is broken and makes it like new.  Even in the darkest of places, the bleakest of circumstances, when everything around you feels rotten and destroyed and broken, He can call forth life.  Not just any life either, but a life of abundance and of freedom.


Sometimes we are going to have a bad week.  But God doesn't stop being amazing.


Sometimes we are going to feel like we've reached our limit and had enough.  But God doesn't stop calling us forwards into the life He has destined for us.


Sometimes we are going to cry out in despair, wondering how anything else could possibly go wrong.  Call out to God and He will come and wrap his loving and protective arms around you, carry you and guide you.


God is a God of light and life and love.


If you are feeling fed up just remember that God can revitalise and refresh you, He can bring you back to a place of enjoying life even if you can't see it!  Take some time to stop and reflect, to remember and regenerate.  Then pick yourself up and move forwards with God.


He is the Giver of Life.


'In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' John 1 v 4-5


and my favourite version of all - The Message, how awesome is this:


'What came into existence was Life, and The Life was Light to live by.  The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.' John 1 v 4-5


3 comments:

  1. I love it when God gives us those little signs and encouragements like that tomato. xxx

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  2. Amazing how God speaks in the simplest of things, isn't it? Lovely post x

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