One Leaf

I'm feeling a little wordy today, so bear with me. I promise if you stick with this post, there will be a card at the end! :)

This is the story of one leaf. This leaf.

I know it doesn't look like much, but I've held on to this little leaf for one year.

This leaf came to me last September when I was walking the trail behind my house, and this little leaf changed me in profound ways. Pretty amazing for a shriveled and dried thing, I know. But when it came to me, it was golden and lovely and full of promise.

I had been walking the trails a lot then, talking to God and pouring out my troubles in prayer.

One September day as I walked the trail, the Holy Spirit brought a word to me, and it was not a pretty word.

"Bitter," the Holy Spirit said.

Ouch. A word of conviction is never comfortable. Yes, I had become discontented and bitter. My life was not what I wanted it to be. Four long years of illness. Four long years of dead end jobs. Four long years where friends were few and far between.

And that's when I began to plead my case.

"But look, God, look at how I've struggled."

Bitter.

"But, but, but..."

Bitter. Bitter. Bitter.

And then the Holy Spirit whispered the Word to me:

"See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many." (Hebrews 12:15)

Yes. I realized right there and then that I had let the bitter root grow in my life, and because of it, I had been missing out on grace.

God had been trying to teach me a little something about redemption last year ("Redeemed" became my life word for 2012). One thing I had yet to learn was that if I trusted God to redeem me, then I had to trust that He could redeem whatever life situation I was facing. He wanted to give me grace in exchange for bitterness.

It sounded like a good exchange to me.

I so wanted to be done with it. I confessed my sin of bitterness right there and then. I was not willing to let one more day go by when I had missed out on grace.

Surrender.

I can't begin to tell you the feeling that came over me right there on that trail. The burden of bitterness was lifted, and I wept tears of joy and thankfulness.

And just then, as if in slow motion, this leaf floated down from a tree above me. It was as if I was being offered the chance to reach out and grab that grace. And I did grab it...in mid air.

I took this leaf home with me and kept it on my window sill. Every time I happened to glance at it, I remembered that moment of grace.

I found the leaf in my basket of tea things this month, and marveled at where God has taken me in just one year. No more illness. No more discontent. In a new city, in a new old home that I love, with so many new friends and new opportunities.

And here's the part where the card comes in....

A little card with one little golden leaf. One word of gratitude.

Blessed.

{Today's Brew: Papers from We R Memory Keepers, die cuts and stamp from PTI, twine from Lawn Fawn, Distress Markers}

Grace and peace to you, my cafe friends!