Everywhere I look, every road we travel, leaves are falling. The season is changing, the colors around us are changing, and our hearts are being transformed daily. Maybe this season is also to strip us of qualities that do not look like Christ. Like leaves falling off us. A lighter load.
There are days when God ministers to my heart, and I feel light as a feather; other days, I feel a weight pressing on my heart.
I wonder how the Israelites coped day in and day out, walking, living, and camping in the sand. We've only been doing it for a few months now, and I realize how we took grass for granted. I long to press my toes into soft, green grass!
Now let me address the elephant in the room. We visited a family friend that lost her son to suicide. There are no words to console such a torn heart. The pain is tangible in the atmosphere. It is a heaviness no one wishes to carry. The stigma of suicide makes the human heart so frail that we humans avoid those affected like the plaque. A semicolon is used for suicide awareness. In grammar, it is used to link two independent clauses, but something stronger is needed. Some people say it means: "The story is not yet done." I have to ask: "Are people so selfishly engulfed in their own lives that we can not hear another's cry for help?" Years ago, my friend compiled a research proposal on the effect suicide has on loved ones, and it was met with criticism, rejected with a red stripe through it! Covid has caused suicides to increase considerably, but yet a lid is put on it. Why is suicide something to be hushed? Maybe we all need to be a bit more open, honest, and genuine. Let's put aside those fake masks we love to wear and pretend. Let us do what we were created to do, love our Creator and love your neighbor as yourself.
1 Pet 4:8 "Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins."
When we become aware of bondages in our family and the Truth enlightens us, that we can start interceding, breaking strongholds and war in the spirit for such a cause! Thus, we are not left at our mercy, but the blood of Jesus made a path!
Another area where the enemy is increasingly stealing is pregnancy and birth. So the enemy is hard at work trying to destroy the natural order that God created things to be. But despite heavy persecution, Godly midwives are standing against the current that's forcing their hands to conform. God will prevail. Let's keep on interceding in this area. It makes me think of Pharaoh that called the Hebrew midwives to kill the Jewish bab
ies at birth. They chose to fear God rather than men! I want to encourage all the midwives out there to stand their ground for God! This season might seem like all leaves are scattered, leaving the tree empty and naked, but know summer is coming. The hardship invested will pay out as beautiful fruit.
Do you know why most trees shed their leaves in autumn? It is to conserve resources and as a protection mechanism against cold temperatures while getting rid of toxins. In doing so, the tree stores up for a new season.
When things in life take a less desired direction, do you praise God for allowing our leaves to fall off and see it as God protecting you, or do you moan and groan?
We've lost a missionary friend this month. He departed from this world to join our Lord and Saviour. Scripture says to live is Christ, to die is gain, but emptiness is left in the hearts of those remaining. More leaves are falling.
This month, we felt so much constraint sharing the gospel. The spirit of fear is going on a rampage with covid on the loose in the camp. Myself, I just wanted to hibernate at Jesus's feet. But the harvest is plentiful, so let's work, even if it just means to rake the leaves today to be tomorrow's compost.
Another strange occurrence is that I kept on running into familiar faces from my past. We had to leave to meet with people we wouldn't have crossed paths with otherwise. How lovely also meeting new people, leaving a footprint, and blessing us with their prayers. No meeting is a coincidence, but divinely appointed by God.
Oh, what a beautiful season it is indeed! Let us choose to be optimistic rather than cynical. Let us enter prepared for winter.
PS: God blessed me by gently placing me on green grass twice this month!
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