Magnolia Leaf-Sacrifices

Swish. Crackle. Swish. Swish.
On the last day of April, late Saturday morning, I tackled the magnolia leaves that dropped from my neighbor’s tree and blanketed my front yard.
As I worked my arms and back in brisk exercising pace, the sweat began to drip down my face. My hot face told me that it was probably a good shade of red at that point. I had reached the point.
The point at which everything that was on my mind and weighing my heart was gone. My insides were still and ready to listen. I was receptive to God’s voice.
Good conversations are not just about speaking. Good conversations are about listening, too. Listening is very important. When I listen, I learn. When I listen to God, I am changed…converted and reformed. This conversion leaves me strengthened and renewed by God’s grace.
I love nature and the natural world so much so that I studied geology at university. In nature, I feel connected to God. I am surrounded by God’s creation and re-creation. God uses nature to teach me.
On this Saturday, my lesson came from dead magnolia leaves cluttering my front yard. As I raked the leaves, I wondered why they had fallen from the tree now in late Spring. As I thought about Spring, I remembered the beautiful, fragrant Magnolia flower. As I focused on such beauty, my heartstrings connected with my thought process.
God taught me about living faith through the witness of the suffering, sacrifices of magnolia leaves and resurrection of new life found in the life of a Magnolia tree. I noticed that the times of my life where I experienced suffering and pain, God put people in my life that ministered to me as a result of their circumstances. I noticed that my life experiences that involved suffering were life lessons that allowed me to minister to others who experienced similar pain and circumstances. This ministering involved the creation of relationships. In those relationships, I sensed the presence of Christ.
Sometimes, ministry develops from and out of woundedness. As a result of ministry, community is strengthened by the support of each person’s support of another. Christ works through and with everyone in ministry. In this way, Christ’s presence is revealed and felt in community.
What a powerful faith lesson to learn on a late Spring day. …God’s faith lesson taught by a magnolia tree.