Walking past my blueberry bushes on an unusually warm December day, I couldn’t help but notice the absent red leaves compared to the day before. The chilling north wind whipped against my face. Looking at the pile of red under the bushes, I knew most of the leaves had succumbed to the wind’s purpose of ushering in the bushes’ dormancy.
But my eye caught the remaining red leaves. It was almost as if they were clinging to those stems with all the strength they had.
Don’t we get like that sometimes? A season we loved is over. It was incredibly fruitful, filled with wonderful memories. But the season has changed but we naturally want to cling onto what we loved with everything we have.
But we have to let go.
We learn another vital lesson from the blueberry bush here. It doesn’t shed its leaves and immediately begin sprouting new ones. No, it goes into dormancy. It expands its root system. It rests.
We must take time to rest. To grieve. To grow our roots.
Then in the blueberry bush, with the lengthening daylight hours and rising temperatures, new growth begins. Beautiful, lush growth. Growth bigger and fuller than the season before. Growth ripe with buds that will soon become fruitful blueberries.
Oh, the blueberry bush teaches us so much about life. About our loving God. He sends the winds that help us to let go. He allows us rest in winter to grieve. And he brings spring at the perfect time because winter isn’t where he wants us to stay, after all. No, he has great plans for us! Plans to prosper us! Plans for us to be lush, vibrant, stronger than in the seasons before, and to be fruitful!
But it all starts with embracing the seasons. Letting go. Resting. Then emerging.
What season are you in?
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