Five Minute Friday: Notice

Joining in with the Five Minute Friday group again this week. This week's prompt is "notice."



As I sit and watch the first snowfall of the season around here, I've been struck by the peaceful feeling it brings to just sit and watch it. Sitting in my favourite writing place - a coffee shop - sipping my latte, I'm watching peace fall outside the window.

I've always like snow - as long as I don't have to do a lot of driving in it. There is something about the way it blankets everything in white and muffles the usual noises, that seems peaceful.

Especially when the things in my mind seem to be anything but peaceful. When my mind is in chaos, the visible reminder of God's peace is a welcome sight.

It invites me to start to notice God in the midst of the chaos swirling in my mind. To notice the peace God has given.

In Matthew 14:27, Jesus said these words to His disciples:
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

If we're too busy, we don't notice the peace Jesus gives.

If we've gotten too caught up in the chaos of our minds and become troubled and afraid, we don't notice the peace Jesus gives.

But, He promised us His peace - in the midst of our chaos, our trouble, our fear. He lets His peace fall in all those areas. We must learn to notice it.

Sometimes we might need a visual reminder of His peace, like the falling snow has been for me tonight. Watching it fall, I notice that my mind begins to settle, as I become more aware of the peace Jesus gives falling in my mind and my heart tonight. Not to bury or ignore the challenges, but so I approach them differently.

The Growth we Don't See

Cold. Barren. Frost covered.

The ground firm beneath each step I take.

Lifeless poles with spindly limbs are what the trees I walk among have become.

There is no snow yet to cover the barren landscape around me. The death that precedes the coming winter glaringly obvious to anyone walking through it.

It's hard to find the beauty at this time. The colours of earlier in fall are gone. No brightly coloured leaves remain. All that is left is gray and brown.

Lifeless. Dead.

Our lives can feel like that sometimes. Everything that once brought life and colour gone. Nothing but dull and drab left behind.

When the snow of winter finally comes with its blanket of white, we longer see the dead and lifeless all around. We see the beauty of the white blanket reflecting the light instead.

The snow covers and protects the work of new life that is already beginning. It holds the beginnings of that new life deep inside until it's ready to see the world outside when spring comes.

The same is true for our lives. Everything can feel dead and buried in snow. No growth happening yet, that we can see. But, deep inside, God is already beginning His work - He is creating new life. When the time is right, the snow will melt and new life will emerge. It's now ready to grow into what God created it to be.

We don't always see it that way, but the times when everything seems dead and completely buried, are the times when God is still at work. Deep inside, new growth is beginning. We can't see it yet, but it is there. 

And when the time that feels so cold and dark is over, the new growth will be strong enough to emerge and begin to produce something beautiful. Something that wouldn't have been able to grow without the time where everything felt dead.

Beauty from the Broken Pieces

Broken pieces scattered on the floor. Hundreds of them in every crack and corner. May of them too small to gather together again. What was once treasured and beautiful to they eye will never be the same again.

Slowly. Carefully. The bigger pieces are gathered. Leaving just the ones too small to pick up behind. Those tiny pieces swept up and thrown away.

Reconstruction of the larger pieces begins. Gentle placement of each piece - hoping there aren't too many holes in the rebuilt masterpiece.

The question becomes how to put the pieces together again. What will fill the cracks and the holes now? What will hold it all together?

Finally, the pieces are all together again. A different beauty emerges this time. A beauty of the recreated whole. A delicate beauty of all the shapes and sizes of the pieces together. The cracks reflecting the light in different ways.

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We serve a God Who is the master at taking broken pieces and recreating beauty from the pieces we thought too broken to ever be used again.

He takes the broken pieces of our dreams and plans and creates beauty in His purposes for us.

He takes the broken pieces of our families and our relationships and creates beauty in forgiveness and restoration.

He takes the broken pieces of our sin and choosing to do wrong and creates beauty in redemption when we turn to Him.

We serve a God Who specializes in taking the broken and recreating incredible beauty. The key is that we have to let Him. We have to let Him see the broken pieces of our lives and touch the broken pieces of our lives.

We would rather try to hide the broken pieces. We do our best to keep anyone from touching our broken pieces because it's painful to let someone touch them. It reminds us that they're broken pieces. And we don't want to remember that.

But when we choose to let God take the broken pieces, beauty emerges from them. The pain of letting Him take those pieces and rebuild them is worth it for the outcome in the end.

What broken pieces of your life do you need to allow God to take and rebuild into something beautiful?