We have verberum plants in our
garden. They are evergreen and they can be hedged or left to grow
as tall as trees. We planted rows of them against our walls at
home. On two sides we left them as trees and on the one side we
hedged them. Now, four weeks ago myself and the boys hedged them so
that it looked neat and tidy once again. But last week I noticed
that one stem of the verberum grew much taller than the rest. That
stem with its leaves truly stands out from the rest. Now this
morning when the sun came up I saw it again. It was so beautiful.
This one stem was basking in the sunlight whilst the rest was still
in darkness. And the Lord spoke to my heart and said that we must
be like that one stem.
He wants us as Christians to rise
up above it all. He wants us to grow in Him and to bask in the
sunlight of His Son. He wants us to be an example to others and to
lift them higher and to show them the joy of following God in spite
of the crises we all find ourselves in. You see the rest of the
plant is still in darkness, like the world, murmuring, complaining
and stressing about the future. But God doesn't want us to murmur,
complain and stress alongside with them. He wants us to rise above
it all, and be an example to the world.
Also the wall where the verberums
are hedged is the outer wall of our property and there is an
electric fence. Now right behind this stem that grew so much more
than the rest, there is a yellow danger sign indicating the
electric fence. And God instantly told me, in our lives there will
be signs everywhere indicating that there is danger. The danger of
the Corona virus, the danger of a recession, the danger of
accidents, losing your job, your health, you name it. The world
screams danger all around. But God wants us to be like this stem.
This stem doesn't look at the sign, it is not bothered by the sign,
it simply looks up to the sun and grows. The leaves of the stem
look as if the stem is lifting them up, praising and glorifying
God. And God wants us to be the same. We shouldn't be frazzled by
all the danger signs, all the doom and gloom stories, we should
simply look up to Him and grow in the sun shining down on us,
providing for us. We should be filled with praise and worship, no
matter what. Therein lays our power to grow even more.
This process of growing reminded me
of a song by Jason Gray. The song is 'Order, disorder, reorder' and
this song is about God showing us through 'disorder' in the world,
that the 'order' we thought we had in our lives needs to be
'reordered' to align us to become more and more like Him. He wants
us to grow, to develop and become the people He created us to be.
Allow me to quote from the song:
I thought
The storm would never come to an end
I begged You again and again
To send a miracle
But the storm was
The way You broke my heart open wide
To get to what was hidden inside
And call it beautiful
Order, disorder, reorder
Over and over and over
So here I am, I'm all in
Though it feels like falling
If that's what it takes for You to break through
Give me the faith when I'm afraid to say
Here I go, I'm ready
I know You won't forget me
You'll give me the grace to find a way through
Order, disorder, reorder
Over and over and over
I don't really wanna change
If I'm telling You the truth
But like it or not, Your love won't stop
Till it makes me new
So give me all that You got
From the bottom to top
Till I look like You
Order, disorder, reorder
Over and over
None of us wants to change; it is a
painful process and not one that we would willingly choose. But He
wants us all in. He wants us growing until the diamond inside of us
is sparkling. He wants us to sparkle and shine and lure others
closer to Him. It is not an easy path to become the diamond He
intended for us, but it is worth it! We will be changed forever,
renewed, filled with His joy and love, excited about our future,
living with a knowing within us that we are fulfilling our purpose
in life, shining as the God given diamond that we are.
Rise up above the rest, bask in the
sunlight and be an example to the world, luring them closer.
Father we want to grow higher and
higher. We want to exalt You on High. Thank you that we can know
that You supply the grace that we need to grow. Thank you for
developing the diamond within us all. We truly love You. Amen