Thursday, May 10, 2012

So Much More Than . . .

Autumn trees take my breath away.

I don't know about you, but for me, when something is so inexpressibly beautiful, it feels "not enough" to just see it.
I want to dive into it; to somehow become immersed in it.
Its the same with some pieces of music.
Specially classical music.
Its "not enough" to just hear it: a deep part of me wants to be overwhelmed by it; to drown in it.

With this in mind, these two days in Tulbagh were a Godsend.
Autumn leaves everywhere! The vines were a scarlet, ruby, golden wonderworld.


And they were not alone - there were all sorts of other trees shouting aloud for attention





And then there were the the evenings on the deck in the tree tops, having simple meals and deep talks.
Warm heartedness in the cold night air.

But here is the crux of what I want this post to be about:
We once stopped the car so I could hop out and take a closer look at the leaves, jewel-like in their glorious colours.
But when I took individual leaves into my hands, I was astonished to see that they were drab and uninspiring.
A sort of khaki colour: dingy green with dark veins.

I couldn't believe it!
What had happened?
And then I help up one of them so the sun shone through it
And voila!
The glory was there again.

And I realised suddenly - what a wonderful life-lesson!
It's just like us - we are nothing special; pretty drab and un-inspiring on our own.
Certainly compared with what we could be when the Son shines through us.
And when He does - He makes the ordinariest of us something beautiful because its His breathtaking glory shining through.

I asked DH to help me illustate this with a leaf I brought home:

In its'" unenlightened" state.
Need I say more?!
When there are countless millions of leaves together, ALL with the sun shining through them, we have this incredible display of nature -
How much more then, when we have the Son shining through countless millions of people . . . ?




6 comments:

Lynette Jacobs said...

Stunning post!

May we shine the light into the world.

MrsLG said...

Lovely post and pictures!

I'm so not a blogger said...

Beautiful post:-)

cat said...

Beautiful beautiful post ( and pictures)

Brigitte said...

Oh Allie, you have these kind of eyes and heart that can see the light through leaves, people, events and you have the gift to pass it on. It makes our lives richer and our understanding deeper, it gives meaning to what seems ordinary... Thank you for taking the trouble to share with us.

Susanne said...

Allie, your writings are such an inspiration and God is using you to speak to us and lift us up to higher ground.
What a gift. Thank you!
Susanne, a friend of Brigitte