I saw life!

I saw life.
I went walking last Sunday afternoon. It has been a cold and hard winter for those of us here in North Carolina who are more accustom to praying to see a little snow. I bundled up my ears and hands, put on my tennis shoes and took to the road determined to get in my exercise. I was really wanting a good long walk. My face was chilled but all was well as I pounded Old Farm Road. It was a wonderful time to meet God in prayer and I enjoyed seeing all the vehicles passing by filled with families on their way to Sunday lunch. I turned the corner on Hamilton Street and there is where I noticed.
I saw life.
As I passed by a row of trees, still bare from losing their fall leaves. Looking desolate without their normal green garments.
I saw life.
There on the tips of the limbs I spotted new buds. New life. New life being prepared for spring. New life being nourished and fed even here during this brutal winter.
I saw life.

And God quietly whispered, "Where else can you see life in what looks bare and desolate?";
"Who has buds of life waiting to spring forth that need my nourishment during the brutal trails of life?"; "Are you missing them?".
I started a list in my mind of those times I have been through trails and my outer shell shed it's Joy. But there were always buds waiting to spring forth. They just needed nourishment. Nourishment from prayer, from time in the Word. Nourishment from time spent with encouraging, uplifting Christian sisters. Who needs my encouragement? Your encouragement?
Currently in Faithfully Fit we are studying Extraordinary Women of the Bible. Our most recent study has been on Ruth. But here mother-in-law, Naomi, is impossible to overlook. The two are inseparable. They are bound together with the common thread of faith. After Naomi has moved from the home she loved during famine, lost her husband and two sons to death she finds herself stripped of all things and feels bitter. However, she turns to journey back to her homeland and discovers that she has an overlooked gift right there with her. Her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Even as Naomi urges Ruth to turn and go back to her family feeling she has nothing to offer without a husband or sons, Ruth proclaims,

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God."   Ruth 1:16

Ruth sees the bud of life that never left Naomi. She sees the constant provision of God even in the time of trail. She sees the one thing she knows will never depart from her or Naomi even during the coldest of times, the darkest of times, the most difficult of times. Without anything she still saw life!
She saw life.
God.
Life.
Provision.
Constant.
Nourishment.
"He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age." Ruth 4:15

Look for life! ~ Jodie