Beauty in the hard times

  I live in the woods.  There is a ring of grass around my house and then woods, including lots of weeds.  There are cacti around, which seems odd based on the climate and makes me wonder if someone dumped them out at one time.  There are also some weeds that have weird silvery leaves with spikes on the edges.  Today, I looked out of my window and one of the cacti has a beautiful yellow flower on top.  The spiky weed just a few feet away has a lovely purple bloom.  Isn’t it amazing how something so harsh, even painful, can have beauty come from it?  

I am reading a book of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons from the book of Job (I’ll get to a book review on it when I finish).  Job suffered a lot and not because of anything he did or didn’t do.  Sometimes life is just hard.  Sometimes, God allows us to suffer so that we will have all the extra and unnecessary stuff stripped away and He can bless us with better.  

That’s what I think of when I see these difficult “weeds” crowned with beautiful flowers.  Maybe, if we are going through a “cactus” period in our lives, there is a bloom just waiting to show up when the cactus has grown enough to support it.  


“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.”  Job 13:15a 

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