Fix Your Eyes

The view out my window is beautiful these days. The grass is starting to green up, the buds on the trees are beginning to shoot out in their full glory, birds are singing, and that hoot owl outside my bedroom window wakes me up nearly every morning, ushering out the night and welcoming the dawn of a brand new day. I love spring. Everything cold and dead comes alive again and watching the transformation is always a wonderful treat for me.

But, like everything else, spring comes and goes quickly, so I really try to pay attention to it. My favorite part of the transformation process is watching my fruitless crabapple tree go from bare branches to green, leafy buds, then to pink flowery buds, and finally, to a brilliant, white snowball of flowers. This transformation always happens around Easter time and it fills me with great expectation, hope, and wide eyes for what’s to come next.

But, how often do we fear transformation? If “change is good” why can it be so scary at times? I was reading Malachi 3:6 today which says, “I the Lord do not change.” This gave me pause as I reflected on the not-so-great times in my life when I was feeling helpless, hopeless, afraid, and unsure. We all go through these times in our lives, but it is then that we need to fix our eyes on God. He is ever-present, never-changing, always near.

When I find myself in times of uncertainty, I have to remember that He is unchanging – my rock – the stable center that I desperately need when things feel like they are out of control. I fix my eyes on Him. In His splendor, God gives us the reassurance that He is walking with us, leading us through our problems and not around them, and taking us by the hand so that we can be stronger people for having done so.

One way I’ve found to be most helpful in “fixing my eyes” on Him is to spend a little time in nature. Gaze at the mountains, feel the sun on your skin, take a walk in the park, breathe in fresh air, and during this time of year, notice the daily changes He's bringing about. He is in all of these things, and when we immerse ourselves in His Divine love, we are given the assurance that our springtime is near, that He is omnipresent in our lives, and that our cold, barren branches will soon be brilliant and white. Let it unfold.