Wasting Away; Renewed Day by Day

There is a woodpile over the hill in my backyard. I didn't put it there. It was there when we moved in. When I found it, it was covered in vines and downed trees. After cleaning the overgrowth, I was able to utilize this wood for our many fall and winter campfires. Just recently when I went back there to get some dry wood, I'd found that a goodly portion of the pile had begun to decompose. Tiny bugs, weather and time itself have taken their toll on the cut logs back there. Many have decayed clean through. And there at the bottom of the woodpile, is the most beautiful earth you've ever seen. Those logs have been transformed into deep chocolate-brown loamy soil. I spent an afternoon recently digging up that dirt and filling a wheelbarrow, which I rolled up the hill to my garden. There I dumped it on top of the less hospitable soil I've planted my tomatoes, green beans and other vegetables into this past summer. Now nearly filling the garden plot, is beautiful black soil filled with nutrients God Himself supplied. I can hardly wait to plant my garden for next year.

How beautiful, how amazing is our God to take what wasn't being used and transforming it into something that not only will be used, but will make something else better! I like to think of us human beings in that same light. A friend told me recently she is lamenting leaving her family for the first time as she and her husband are relocating in the New Year. She wanted Bible verses to lean on in this transition. In addition to those verses, I gave her some advice from our many moves. I told her to find a church as soon as she could, for the church will become her new family. I also told her that every move our family has made has grown us spiritually. There is no doubt that we are closer to Christ, better servants and deeper in our faith with every relocation.

God is so wise and so good with this change. He's taken something that might not have been used in another place, and made it something that not only will be used, but perhaps make something else better. Scripture tells us that "Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day." (2 Cor.4:16). I can't wait for stories of God's plans for this young family after their move! How will they better themselves and God's Kingdom, I wonder. Just like the new soil will make for a better ecosystem in my garden, no doubt this move will make a better Kingdom of God! Glory to Him!