Potential

The time had come for us to move from our home of twenty-eight years. My husband began looking for just the right place to build what we hoped would be out last house. He looked for weeks, checking every possible listing in our area. Everything he saw was either already sold or  not what we were looking for.

About the time we felt like giving up, he found five acres he thought would be perfect. They were on a corner, and the land was completely  flat. He called the real estate agent  immediately praying no one had gotten there before us. This time it all worked out. We were the first to call, and eventually we were able to purchase the land.

The only draw-back was the absolute jungle that had grown up over the years the property stood idle. Apparently the owner had intended to build some day but had never been able to realize his dream. So there we were, with five acres of cedar trees that had grown uninhibited for twenty years. I should add here that cedar trees in Texas grow like weeds and will quickly take over if not kept under control.

It was very much like tramping  through a jungle, when my husband took me to look at it. I had a hard time envisioning what it would look like cleared of all the overgrowth. We discovered beautiful oaks scattered throughout, but they were struggling for lack of sunlight. My husband assured me it would be a beautiful place to build a home.

It took two men with big machines three weeks to take down and grind up all the cedar. We had carefully gone through and marked all the oaks before they began. In the end, they were the only trees left standing. The transformation was spectacular. Those five seemingly useless acres had become the perfect place for our new home. My husband saw the potential before a single tree was taken down. He knew that underneath all that mess was a beautiful plot of land.

We have a Father who looks at us in the same way. He sees past all the things we think disqualify us to be the person He created us to be and sees potential. When the men did the work on our property, the trees were no match for them. They gave way before the power of those big machines and were torn out of the ground.

In the same way, there is nothing in our lives too big for God to redeem. There may be things that have grown unchecked for years, literally taking over our lives – crowding out the good. He looks beneath the layers of faults and failures and sees the beauty He crafted into our lives before we were even born. He is patient and kind, willing to work little by little until our lives are transformed.

 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  IICor. 5:17

“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”   Eph. 2: 7-10 (The Message)

Blessings,

Linda

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