It's time to bloom!

There is an ordinary tree across the street from the house I am living in temporarily.  In late June, when we moved here, it was covered in green leaves.  I suppose in the Fall those leaves turned color and dropped to the ground beneath it without my notice.  Through the Winter, bare to the elements, it's brown trunk and branches blended in with the surroundings.  However, yesterday,  I noticed the tree.  There are enough white blossoms to cover the entire canopy that I barely see the dark branches on which these delicate blossoms grow.  It's a spectacular display of nature.  However, I had overlooked this ordinary tree.

Haven't we all seen ourselves like the tree across from my street?  Ordinary.  Blending in with the environment.  Doing our thing and not attracting attention to ourselves.  Shame on us.  Shame, shame, shame.

As I age, I cling to those things that give me life and knowledge and true wisdom.  Having lived 50 years on the planet, I know those things that give life, knowledge and true wisdom:  my relationship with God - period.  However, I somehow got the impression that when I met Jesus, I was like that ordinary tree across the street.  An ordinary tree that needed work.  A tree that was now saved from a horrible fate but a tree none-the-less.  Shame on me.  Shame, shame, shame.

What I have grown to understand through God's Word is that when I met Jesus, I became a new creation.  Shazamm!  A new creation.  I don't believe we who call ourselves new creations even realize what kind of creation we've become!  We are not ordinary trees that still blend into the background but new, extraordinary creations that change the atmospheres in which we've been placed!  We carry the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  We are the recipients of immeasurable power according to God's strength.  We have been blessed by God with every spiritual blessing.  However, we often don't know it.  We don't recognize and activate that to which has been freely given to us!

That tree is exploding with new life.  That tree is doing what it was meant to do!  That tree is drawing attention to the new life inside it!  That tree is making an impression!

Shouldn't we, who carry all these things inside us who know Jesus, be imitators of this tree?  It's not effort - it's submission.  When we submit to the truth of who we are in Christ, we will display HIS power, love, greatness and change atmospheres around us!!  The world around us needs displays of God's love, power, wisdom, beauty.  We who are His children, let's walk in our potential in Christ!!  It's time to bloom!!