Notes from Nature: Beauty—But Not As Expected
This spring, as all of the redbuds, pear, and plum trees should have been blooming out into a chorus of flowers—they weren’t.
I had watched them plumping up, preparing for their show, and I was very much looking forward to their debut when we got an extreme cold snap. And just like that, they were done.
Though hardy, the 9-degree temperature was too much for them to bear.
My initial rounds to survey the situation were met with shrunken and shriveled blossoms.
Disappointing? Without question.
How could I not miss the joy that spring blooms bring with them?
At first glance, spring seemed to be completely lost.
If I had settled in that thought and not ventured out to see the smaller, less vociferous signs of spring, indeed it would have been. I would have missed out on the deeper beauty of what this had to speak to me.
Although there was no grand display of purples, pinks, yellows, and whites, it didn’t mean the trees gave up, nor that there wasn’t another, more subtle beauty to be witnessed—a beauty that requires stepping in for a closer look.
The trees continued on, and soon, the tiniest baby leaves began to emerge and grow.
I don’t know how closely you’ve looked at tree leaves as their buds open, but this year, I saw them as never before. The way they are curled so delicately, how tender they are—they unfurl from the most perfectly, exquisitely packed bud. Each a little masterpiece.
For me, it called to mind how sometimes my life has not looked pretty.
Things have not always come to fruition and “blossomed” as I’d hoped. But I have learned, with God’s grace, that how things look at first glance rarely reveals the true and full nature of what is actually happening, nor is it always an accurate indication of how things will turn out.
It takes faith during those times to trust that not all is lost—that energy, life, beauty, is still there, even when things appear to the contrary. And sometimes, it just needs a closer, deeper look.
My hope for you this day, my friend, is that whatever your challenges or struggles, you can hold onto the faith that God is at work—that beauty will emerge, even if it looks different than you expected.
