Digging Deeply

Plants in our yard thrive.  We have trees and bushes that compete to overgrow their neighbors.   To prepare for leaving we must trim and dig and remove.  Smitty tore out the avocado tree that refused to bear; I dug up a lovely butterfly bush that grew wild and refused to stay out of the next yard.  We both had to dig deeply to remove the roots and debris of those plants.  The apple, lemon, and persimmon trees  were trimmed to half their heights, all in an attempt to control vegetation which flourished out of control.  These are painful, necessary actions.

This morning in Jesus Calling I read that when God allows us out on a limb, that is the safest place to be.  As I pondered that thought combined with reading Psalm 23:4, I discovered a hidden place in my soul where fear of pain resides.  I feel deeply afraid that the pain of our leaving will, somehow, swallow me.  Later, we shared our morning revelations, and my husband said, "God is revealing some very deep places in us, isn't He?"   That's when I made the connection.

Our lives resemble our plants'.  We have minds of our own.  Our past mistakes and glories lie deep below the surface of our lives today.   Daily activities of life easily mask issues we have buried and hurts we want healed but don't have the courage to face.  Our move to Germany has certainly uprooted, just as we uprooted our plants, good stuff and bad.  God gently digs deeply into who we are to reveal who He wants us to be.

Walking this journey keeps us close to the only source of peace and comfort we have.  Without our Heavenly Father guiding us, we wouldn't even dare to dig deeply into our souls to uproot that which controls.  Neither of us like walking here, but we  find wonder in the Lord of the universe Who loves us so much that He walks the journey with us and provides all we need.  We keep digging.