Changes with message of protection

The beginning of psalm 16 is like an acorn prayer. Here are the only words of request in the entire psalm, “Protect me God” What a short prayer! What a powerful prayer!

In what suffering or danger did it arise? We are not told. Only the cry of God to be guarded, to be watched over - Protect me God - 

From this acorn grows an oak so rich and strong that centuries later the apostles were preaching from it on the resurrection of God. Even today the oak is so solid that I too take from its rich beauty. 

In my bible, psalm 16 is titled, “The Lord takes care of his people” 

This is brought home by been in a state of change. Often I think of life in seasons, yet for now life has moved from seasons into simply a stage of change. It feels at times that the world is embarking on this same common state, demarcated by zig zag borders. By intricate delight and wondrous intent, our world is destined to change. Every single micro-moment. It expresses itself anew. Fluid, not stagnant. Tension rises and falls as we lean into and out of our status quo. Our normals rise up and say we are new, this morning. Every morning, like Mercy. 

Some days it creeps in. Finds its way into our world in a subtle, danced fashion. The transformation, almost undetectable, a little like advent… we have all the images of swelling bellies and pregnant hearts enlarging to make room for the Christ Child. We see the Holy Family turned away from every inn because there was no room. Even when there is no end or destiny in sight, we are exhorted again and again to prepare a place, to make room for God. We hold a vigil, meet the change in the season, in the state of change.

Both the art and science of Life are static. It is blooming, sprouting, dying, ebbing, flowing, shifting, while engraving its mark on us. By God’s Divine design. 

Sometimes It draws lines in the sand, divides us into us and them, while asking us to vote or make choice on the way. To remain a people of community, one nation under God, still bound together, undivided. We teeter on the cusp of change. Reconciling personal change and practicing the art of re-embracing our neighbours on all sides, providing a united front for the forward movement. 

Gardeners can bear witness. So can fishermen and politicians. And tide chart markers. Perhaps we are not all the same tone, but in fact more the colour of hydrangea, fuchsia or lavender. A sea of colour, rising and falling. 

Renovation is a way forward, the cutting of the branches. The opening of the heart with dropping more living water in, allowing the tears to flow with the almighty hand out stretched catching all, returning back to the ocean. When the darkness comes, the pace of restoration weaves and wavers. Change starts at the hand of the Creator, with taking on invisibility vs un-invisible. Cutting back the weeds that are like rose tinted lens offering a glimpse at the wider picture, at the reality before us all. Tearing and ripping, weaving together those worn out pieces on the journey path. We are once again at peace with the slowness of change and at a place of tension. Adding and removing. Both and. 

If I am honest, in some moments, I say I don’t want it this way at all. I want it by my design, my way, my timing. Now! Will I ever come to a point of finally seeing? Will I ever fully embrace the imperfection of my own state of now? The overhaul of self to a be the servant called to be. Protect me O Lord 

I tell myself it is wiser and healthier to be at peace with the condition of now. Reconciling myself to feelings of critic to gaining peace. Hard fought peace, in the midst of brokenness, witnessing pain and dim lighting at times. 

On other moments, I feel disrupted and disturbed by what I cannot avoid. Reconciliation draws on all of me. Calls on all I am and all I have; requiring me to go digging deep into the wellspring of my faith. I am weak but He is strong. 

- I keep the Lord before me always. Because he is close by my side, I will not be hurt. - 

But life invites restoration. The Lord encourages reconcile the old and new. The pain and whatever joy is there to bring together the past and the present. I hold onto what fragments are fraying, hoping they will split and break. There is a sense of joy under the mourning and struggling with the load that can only be presented before the cross. 

Restoration doesn’t dismiss the past, rather embraces what it was and is, moving forward on the bumpy road, for a more full, truer self. Even with feeling of witnessing change, first hand, there is delight in what is presented on the other side of the transformation from change. 

I continue to work towards reconciling myself to the changes in life, naturally in my own and others. I pray for the Lords mercy and see goodness, beauty in the small moments of miracles. At times with straining to hear, to understand and decode language, I continue to quilt together the mix rays of colours. Perhaps we all will only find peace in the changes. Living with change we did not ask for yet entrust to Him. Finding something worth fighting for. Hard won Peace in the state of change. Peace with ourselves, our families, our community, and this new state of things. 

Reconciliation is never easy. But I am finding beauty in reconciling the old with the new. The then and now. And re-learning in small increments, to love in new ways. Flawed and imperfect, yet struggling to reconcile what is before me. To be changed for good in the midst of change. Changes in me, my world, the world and change in the deepening of my relationship.