in green pastures

psalm 23:

“the Lord is my shepherd, i lack nothing. 

He makes me lie down in green pastures, 

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

he refreshes my soul. 

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 

even though i walk through the darkest valley, 

i will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff comfort me. 

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 

surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, 

and i will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

 

green. 

there is something about the color green and everything it can mean/symbolize that has captured me in this season of life. i look around and every thing is GREEN. my raincoat is green. my hammock is green. my daily walks are green. growth is green. and the Lord lays me down in green pastures. 

this most recent season of life has been interesting to say the least. stuck at home, can’t go anywhere, still doing school work, but lots and lots of time to spend with the Lord (if i choose it). recently spiritual warfare has been taking place in my mind, as satan’s lies and the whispers of truth from the Lord compete for my heart. every day i have to choose jesus. 

i can choose patience, obedience, love, stillness, trust, hope. 

or i can choose anger, confusion, sorrow, anxiousness. 

phillipians 4:8 – i need to choose the good and lovely things! 

today it’s raining, the chalk on the sidewalk is washed away, the leftover mess from yard work is cleared, not many people are taking their daily walk, and yet there is something beautiful about it. the green that surrounds the neighborhood is replenished and growth takes place. sometimes you need a little rain to grow. 

life right now is like the newness of spring with a fresh dew and sprinkle of rain. 

i can see the wonder and growth and all the little nooks and crannies where jesus is working, but sometimes the rain comes down a little harder than i would like, or i stop and focus a little too much on the inconvenience of the rain, rather than the benefits. 

sometimes God wants us to lay down in green pastures. but He never said that it would be a bright and sunny day with no rain. He simply promised He would be there with us. He would guide us, comfort us, prepare a table for us. and sometimes that table would be prepared right in the presence of our enemies. 

i think sometimes we walk into the christian life and think “this will be easy, cause we have jesus now, right? doesn’t He restore the brokenness? are all the bad things gone?” 

plot twist: an easy life was never promised. in fact, this might get a little harder (2 timothy 3!!). if you really dive deep with God and pursue His heart and will, you tend to do the exact opposite as the world does or tells us. 

in james 1, the half brother of jesus speaks into the trials we will face, knowing that it is in fact something that will come our way. 

“consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. let perseverance finish its work so that you can be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (verse 2-4)

basically, just because things are green, doesn’t mean that growing won’t hurt and that the trials won’t come. growth never came easy, to anybody. 

another piece of scripture that comes to mind is jeremiah 18, when jeremiah visits a potters house and hears from the Lord. He compares the way the potter shapes the clay to israel, the Lord’s people. they have done some wicked things and now the Potter is shaping them. the new pot is better than the old one, but the process to get there can be uncomfortable, and maybe its even painful. 

side note: the Lord just confirmed this message in such a sweet way! with the color green and reference to growth. a few months back i painted 3 stripes of watercolor on this page of my bible, one being green in order to remind myself of the colors you might see in jeremiah 17:8 about a tree planted by a stream. God is so so cool!! alright… back to the blog 🙂

like i was saying, growing can hurt a little. but it sure does produce something amazing. a tree, with green leaves, sap, beautiful bark, maybe even fruit or flowers. but the years and the growth weren’t always pretty. 

in this season, even when it hurts a little, when the rain seems like a bit much, we can look around and see the green.

welp. thats all folks 🙂

i hope this spoke to someone, as it’s been difficult to explain this season of life but green seems to wrap it all up in one word. praying for health and safety and comfort for y’all in this time. feel free to reach out if you need anything, or just with a simple prayer request. 

of course, i am still fundraising and if you feel a call to donate, let me know! you can donate with the button at the top (almost to $10,000 and hope to reach it by the end of the month)! or let me know how you like to give !

y’all are the best,

gretchen