Preparing for a New Season
Unpublished work Regina Henderson March 2018
This morning I choose to spend some time with God in the great outdoors, in nature, doing leaf raking therapy. When I use the term “leaf raking therapy”, my mind doesn’t tell me I’m actually about to do some hard work but rather I’ll be spending time with God in nature and listening for His voice.
The ground was covered with layer upon layer of leaves, everywhere. The top layer were loose and easy to move around, the second layer all seems to stick together with the moisture in the ground and deeper down were decomposing leaves and most difficult to remove. I actually had to use several different gardening tools to do the task before me. I started with a rake, it did well on the top surface, then I had to go to a garden rake to get the stuck together leaves to lose their grip from the ground and then a pitch fork to dig down into the decomposed leaves and to move everything to a designate pile which will later be removed from the yard.
As I removed the leaves, there was little life underneath them; life had been suffocated by the heavy weight, dead debris and lack of light to the ground.
While I was raking, several times I stepped into a small hole. The first time, I didn’t see the hole as it was covered with leaves, disguised as just leaves. The second and third times, I knew it was there but thought I was moving around, clear of it but still stepped in it. The Lord told me that there are pit falls, holes, as stumbling blocks thrown out before us and we have to not just know they are there but we’re to fill them in where we’ll never have to deal with them again. What hole are you and I continuing to step in that needs to be filled in, with God’s truth and love so we can be set free?
I noticed there was a straggly Yaupon tree about 5 feet tall that had come up next to my beautiful Oak tree. It wasn’t planted there, it just came up on its own and now it will need to be removed. The tree is out of place and a distraction from the beauty of the planted tree. Hum, what has sprouted up in my life that I didn’t knowingly plant but now has grown to become a straggly distraction and needs extracted from my life?
As I’m experiencing all of this in the physical, the Lord told me to look at all of this through the spiritual. Like the ground and mounds of leaves, our lives have things that have collected for a season, seasons, maybe even years, that need to be cleared out and brought to the light of God’s truth, where new life and growth can take us to a new season in our lives.
I love season changes, while at the same time; I’m not fond of the work involved in preparing for the new season. All the pre begins in the winter season to prepare for the spring. My husband and I have a vegetable garden every year and it takes a lot of hard work and time in repeatedly plowing the ground and pulling weeds to make it ready for planting, watering and weeding before we have a harvest. By early summer we are enjoying the fruits of our labor. As we prepare for a new season, I encourage you to till the ground, remove any decay, get the weeds out and have your soil ready for the planting of the word; watering and God will bring the harvest.
Most everyone who knows me well knows I love beautiful ornate things, plush flower gardens. I envision that one day my home will have beautiful walking paths, tiered water fountain and blooming flowers everywhere. For years I won’t do anything in my yard since I couldn’t have all I wanted done at once, so I did nothing. Some years back, the Lord impressed upon me to start with small things and each year build upon those things. Start right where I was, with what I had which mainly were plants and seedlings gifted to me by friends. Had I started the 18 years ago when I had moved into my new home, I’d have those beautiful gardens today. I believe the Lord is saying in this season to “Start Right Where We Are!”, bring whatever we have to Him, He’s the one that has gifted us and He wants us to grow and flourish. Dig into His word, water the word and watch as we bloom into the beauties He’s called us to be, producing much fruit as He brings the increase.
I Corinthians 3:6 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.