And yet, in the warm early days of spring, the
lilac bushes begin to bloom. Frozen and dead to the world during the winter, in
the spring their lavish blooms delight the earth with beauty. They emanate a
most delightful scent; the air is filled in the spring with the sweet aroma of
lilac blooms. They are a treat to the eyes and to the heart that has been rendered
winter-raw.
My children gather these blooms in the spring
and use them to adorn their sandbox confections and creations. They love to
climb into the lower branches of their aged arms. Their lovely smell always
delights me as I hang laundry to dry outside in the sweet spring wind. I marvel
at the splendor that the Lord has clothed just one lilac bush in!
Their beauty appears most radiant after the
harshest months of the year. I am reminded how the Lord often brings us through
trials and discouragements in order to strengthen and test our faith. He
desires that beauty in our lives will shine through these hardships and reflect
the spring grace of our Creator, the Father of mercy and redemption and the One
who brings life from death.
Just
as the lilac endures to the end of winter, so we are also called to endure the
trials that He brings into our lives. Hebrews 12:9-12 says,
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much
more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For
they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to
them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His
holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless,
afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have
been trained by it.
Therefore strengthen
the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths
for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be
healed.
He calls us to endure—through His
enabling strength. He brings beauty out of pain and hardship in our lives when
we submit and yield to Him. He promises the “peaceable fruit of righteousness”
when we are trained by His hand through trials and chastenings.
These chastenings do not seem
pleasant at the time (Hebrews 12:11), but in the end they bring forth the marvel
of His grace in our lives when we have been softened and molded by them.
Just as the lilac bush bears
beautiful blooms in the spring, so will our lives show forth His beauty through
the testing and trials that He lovingly sends us as a Father who wants His
children to bear fruit when we yield in surrender to His Fatherly discipline
and love.
