Everlasting

I don't want autumn to be over.  It's my favorite season.  It's so great to hit the ground running after a summer away.  To learn again in the classroom.  To be with friends again.  To implement all the plans that we came up with for our InterVarsity chapter over the summertime.  To break out the jeans and sweaters.  To have pumpkin flavored drinks and apple-scented candles.  To walk down campus and see the beautiful reds and oranges and browns contrasted against the deep scarlet bricks.

I left for Thanksgiving break and there were still the dazzling colored leaves lining College Ave and when I returned to Fredericksburg, they were gone.  The leaves had all fallen.  The trees were bare.

Winter is approaching.

I've never been a fan of winter.  I don't like the cold and I don't like having nothing to do for a month.  If  you ask me, it isn't necessarily the prettiest time of year outdoors, either.

But this year, I'm embracing it.

The wonderful autumn colors have faded.  The leaves have all fallen.  My beautiful environment disappeared before my very eyes.

But... Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades.

I was in this season of activity--of changing colors and new school years.  Now I'm entering a season of waiting and growing under the surface.

A season
of
rest
and
falling
deeper
in love
with
Jesus.

The past month of my life was filled with me wrestling God.  I didn't want to let go of this season of activity.  I didn't want to push the brakes and slow down, even though He was calling me to do so.  But what I've come to realize is that the seasons are always changing.  I am being called into a slow winter now, but that just means that spring is coming next.  He will use the new that He's worked in me during this slow season to produce abundant life and fresh activity in the future.  Jesus doesn't want me to fight Him in the winter.  He simply wants me.  All of me.

I am living the greatest love story ever written.

It's not always about being active.  Sometimes it's being still and just being with God.  Allowing myself to be loved by Him.  Allowing myself to love Him.  And only Him.  Above all else.

When you turn the lights out in the room, that is when the candle gives a transfixing glow.  That is when the candle lights up the whole room and you are not only amazed at it's beauty, but in awe at how a tiny light can illuminate everything in the room.

I am grateful for the fallen leaves because it is when my environment is not ideal that the light of Jesus shines through brighter and more stable than I ever knew it could be.

Everlasting--Your light will shine when all else fades

The joy of being still in His presence is unexplainable.  I painted this today while I just rested in these thoughts and brought them to Him.  He craves times like these, when His daughter just wants to be with Him.  And I'm embracing the fact that the next year and a half of my life will be filled with times like these.  This season is dedicated to me growing in my relationship and knowledge of Christ.  It is dedicated to me slowly learning how to implement the gifts He's given me.  It is dedicated to me living out more of this radical love story.  He is the beginning and the end.  He is Holy beyond comprehension.  He is everlasting.

He. is. love.