My wife and I recently attended a meeting of people who are invested in our local area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). As owners of a small wood, we were interested in seeing the local plans and ideas for enhancing the natural environment around us.
We own just under 5 acres of woodland; half of which has been rewilded by nature and the other half which is old agricultural woodland full of shallow rooted leggy pine and spruce. This cultivated section is dark and furrowed to allow water to move through the forest and so it is rutted and uneven.
We don't get as much time at our wood as we would like and we dont have the time or resources to improve the diversity of the woodland to any great affect but we long for more wildlife, bluebells and ferns.
At the meeting, we spoke to someone from the Forestry Comission about our modest little wood and what impact we could make up there.
Some of it we understood - clear some trees, let daylight in to the florest floor and let things grow.
One thing I wasn't aware of was the presence of the 'seedbank' in the subsoil. Despite the land being cultivated for pine for harvesting - the original flora would have left a seed bank in the earth. It has been there for years and the implications are that; as we clear the land and turn the earth it releases what is in the seed bank and together with the increased daylight - diverse life comes back to the forest floor.
I am sharing this because it deeply encouraged me as I began to see the parallels with the work the Holy Spirit in us.
We have things in our life which seem to dominate the landscape in our hearts and lives. They seem to quash the light of life. They seem to always have been there and yet we perceive in our hearts that there is supposed to be more available somehow.
I want to encourage you that there is a seedbank in your heart. A great treasure, it is dormant and yet trembling and quaking eagerly to be released. It represents the promises of God in and for your life.
And yet it is overshadowed with the familiar. The familiar can be comforting especially when unforseen circumstances impact it.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Don't be discouraged if the current landscape of your life has become chaotic, unfamiliar or messy. God is in the mess, he is cutting down the old and turning over the earth to get to the treasure inside of you.
Why? because he wants you to be released into life, in all of its fullness and fruitfullness. The words and promises he spoke over you are going to come forth. Just hang in there!
When its messy like this and we cannot make sense of the mud and the debris - it is easy to feel like we have been abandoned. It is a dangerous time when many fall away but it is so close. Lean into God, He knows what He is doing.
Hold fast dear ones. You may not be able to make any sense of it. just as in the same way; the disciples could not make sense of Jesus' submission to those who would sentence and put him to death.
We trust God for the unseen, that is how we came here. These times don't make sense to our rational minds and human and temporal point of view. We will not be able to reason the answers or map the landscape because it is changing too quicky to grasp what is happening.
Father will not necessarily explain what He is doing. It is for us to trust.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." [Psalm 3:5-6]
What are we trusting in? Well Him. His goodness despite the mess. His provision in the mess. And trusting that His purpose, even in this churning, morphing and messy season, is to release us into more space, more eternal, incorruptable life in all its fullness, colour and beauty.
What does trusting look like? Well it doesn't mean striving to fix the mess. It sometimes means quiet perseverence. Patient endurance. Worship and praise despite the circumstances. Nestling under God's all protecting wings.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
[Showalter & Hoffman 1867]
Building an unshakeable confidence day by day irrespective of the mounting rubble and debris. He hasn't forgotten us. He is as invested in us as He ever was. Don't be drawn into comparing your lot with the lot of others. Proclaim His goodness in defiance of all the voices saying the contrary. Rejoice in your salvation.