OH! There's a zipper!!!!!!!

I LOVE autumn leaves. They make my heart swell with pleasure! Such beauty.....but then.....such work! Last year I decided to help Dennis by blowing and sucking up the leaves with our leaf blower/sucker thing. (You can tell already that I wasn't well acquainted with this tool.) I blew them all into piles and then I sucked them up until it was too heavy for me to carry. Then, I tried to dump the leaves out of the bag - but I did it through the little hole that I sucked them up with. Really dorky. I thought, "this will take forever - this is insane." If my neighbor was watching, I'm sure he thought the same. Finally, after unloading a couple of bags I made the big discovery of the zipper at the end of the bag. It unzipped to let all of those sucked up leaves come out of a huge hole - much, much easier.

This year I will not be 'helping' Dennis because my wrist is still a little crazy but this is what I see....

We all go through seasons in life. Some with incredible beauty and also incredible labor (or sorrow). God absolutely gives us what we need to negotiate every season - but sometimes we use the tools of our own strength and wisdom and understanding. When we journey through the seasons with His tools of strength and wisdom and understanding it is MUCH more efficient, much more peaceful and much more effective. I pray right now that if you are struggling in the place that you find yourself you will stop - you will look up - you will ask, "Lord, is there a zipper here that I'm missing? Am I making this harder for myself than it really is because I'm doing it with my limited perspective and not Your abundance?????"

At this moment....look up......