March is known for its mud, brown, and drab appearance. It gets a bad rap as the white winter snows melt away and the ground thaws leaving mud in its wake and weather that gives way to spring rains mixed with winter's slushy precipitation. One day it's warm with the tantalizing promise of spring only to have winter's grip grace us with water that comes in the form of sleet or snow.
What do we do with this month?
As I look at the landscape as the trees stand without their leaves and exposed. I am reminded of a truth - life is hidden within. I can complain about the brown and mud (and yes, I do too sometimes) or I can be aware and reminded that the tree is not beautiful because of its leaves or fruit; no, it's beautiful because it's life. We don't have to like the mud and brown landscape but we can choose to see what's beyond and within it.
The tree stands as it is. What you see is really who the tree is. Without what you see - there would be no leaves or fruit in a few months. Right now the life is within and the tree is resting inside and can stand in the harsh winds of winter because of the life within itself.
The landscape of brown grass that stretches out before us, contains the life within, waiting for the warmth of the sun and the longer light of the days to stir it to green and lush.
This truth hits home to my heart. I too, can stand in life's hard and harsh winds and storms because of the life within me - the breath and life of Jesus. I am not defined by what I do or what I say. I am not defined by the leaves of success as the world defines it or even my own definition. I am not defined by the bareness that I feel without at times, and that I may feel within. I am not who I am because of what I do or don't do. I am who I am because of Jesus.
This changes the way I view the trees and the landscape. It also changes the way I see myself and the way I weather the storms.
It is holy ground. I stand in awe and worship.
When we see ourselves through the eyes of God, our Creator and Lover, we will bend in the winds but not be knocked over. We can stand tall as we stand bare and vulnerable. We're not defined by the changing seasons and times because the Life within us defines us.
I invite you to see the brown and bare as beautiful. It's beautiful because in all the vulnerability of the tree, the life is within. Sometimes in all honesty, I, too, feel stripped - bare and brown to the world around me. Even here, the life that can happen within is the beauty of the bare, brown, and beautiful vulnerability.
It's so freeing to not be defined by what 'hangs on the tree' of who I am. For whether I am successful or hidden, whether I am producing or resting - I am loved!
You see, when I am stripped of what seems to be my identity and I stand bare and vulnerable, it creates the space for me to find out who I really am and gives opportunity for me to keep on remembering Whose I am - God's.
Settle in closer to God. Worship Him with your wounds and your joys. Worship Him with the both/and of life that you may be walking through. Stay with Jesus - with hope because spring will come.
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