Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5:17
Once, on a flaming October day, I felt especially frustrated by my inability to stamp out a particular little habit in my life. I had tried countless times to break it, without success. What’s the use? I can’t change, I thought. It’s simply the way I am.
Later that day I took a walk and found myself beside a beautiful old church. As I looked up, filled with admiration for the graceful brick tower, my eyes fell on a tree growing just inside the church yard. It was a striking tree, half autumn red, half summer green. I had caught it in perfect transition. Reaching up, I plucked a leaf and studied it, fascinated by the process that was gradually transforming its colors. Patiently, quietly, the leaf had yielded itself to the mysterious work of God’s design.
As I stood there musing, I began to gather hope. If God designed such a miraculous capacity for change into the leaf, surely He did so for me too. I also could be transformed! But first, like the leaf, I must yield myself to God—with complete trust and patience—and offer no resistance to His work within me.
There beneath the cool shadows of the autumn tree, I tucked the near-crimson leaf into my pocket, a reminder that no one should ever give up on himself. With God’s plan at work in our lives, we can all be changed—just as surely as the changing of the seasons!
Help me to see Your design for my life, Father, and then follow it.
