It is amazing how snow is so transforming. It changes the landscape to a magical land full of beauty and wonder. You no longer see boundaries, everything just flows together to make a pure white blanket. It is so comforting, so peaceful... until the plow comes down the road and pulls up all the dirty muck and slings it over the perfect white snow.
I think this is like our walk with God. He comes in and blankets us with His love and grace, washes us clean, transforms our hearts. The beauty of His love has no boundaries. Then we let the muck of everyday life sneak in and take away the beauty.
This happens to me all the time. I am trying to get to the place where the muck of the world does not have to get me dirty. It is always going to be there. But I do not have to let it ruin the beauty that has been given to me. I get tired of running back to God, asking him to clean me up AGAIN.
I recently had a friend dump me. She stopped having anything to do with me. At first I did not even realize I was dumped. Living up north, we tend to be "fair-weather" friends, so once the cold months hit, we see each other less and less. When I realized I was not being invited over when other friends were, I knew something had to be up. To boil it down, she had been gossiped to by a mutual friend and things were said to her that never should have been. She felt I was passing judgement on her as a parent and was highly offended. She even de-friended me on Facebook. (ouch) I did reach out to her and requested a face to face sit down so we could talk. It turns out that the gossip was the product of a bitter friend that was sour with me over other issues (that we had since worked out). But during her sourness at me, she mis-stated things to this friend that I had said about her parenting.( She left out the part where she agreed with me. ) After a LONG talk, we were able to have restoration and forgiveness. I prayed as I sat across the bar from her, wanting to be 100% open and honest with God putting the right words on my lips. And he did. So...what did I learn from this? Gossip is gossip, and it it never good. Some one will get hurt. I am always going to have an opinion, but I don't need to share with with others. (just my hubby)
The muck of gossip is dirty! I let it stain a friendship. But, Jesus is there, ready to forgive me when I ask. He lays down a new blanket of fresh fallen snow. It is beautiful! Now, all I need is to keep the plows out a here!
That was great, Jenn. I had lunch with some friends today & we were talking about the exact same thing. One of them (a Catholic) thought she wasn't worthy of taking the communion host with her hands & always accepted it with her mouth instead...until a friend pointed out she got into much more trouble with her mouth than she ever would with her hands. :)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I've had to perpetually re-learn this lesson the hard way. (Think Kimmie!)
Love you & miss you! Stay warm!