I'm a Dandelion

The day is warm and sticky, like fresh, hot bread with butter rolling down. It's the kind of evening when you're glad that you're alive and breathing and glad the world is too. It smells like clover. 

 We play together out here with the children, like children. The sun warms our backs while clouds and breezes cool our faces. 

I walk from one to another and capture the moments. She kicks her little pink cleats up and down on the grass. Her pigtails make me smile because of the way they stick up mischievously.

His helmet is just oversized enough to be cute. Two girls play together and the sun sets in Amber's hair. I tuck the moments away in my camera pocket. I'll take them out to admire them later, my little treasures.

       

You know, life doesn't stop. But it feels like it's slowed down to catch it's breath this evening. I want to catch my breath too.

I'm an impatient person. I try to rush life because I want to control it. Being impatient is a sin. Why? Because ultimately it's saying that the pace God has set for my life isn't good enough. It's basically saying that I know best and that God better hurry up and get on my schedule. 

Forgive me, Jesus. 

Psalm 103:15-16 says, 

"As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more." 

That's me. That's you. We're dandelions. Blooming all golden in the sun one moment, and blowing away in the wind the next. How fragile all our lives are. So why am I so impatient for life to move on quickly? I need to live here, the only place I can be, and enjoy it! 

Don't get me wrong, God doesn't want us to be so focused on here that we forget about the end goal: preparing for and one day leaving this earth to spend eternity with Him. But I don't believe that means missing out on the purpose He has for us in the here and now. Heaven is not the only place that we're meant to enjoy our Jesus. 

We are to praise Him for His creation and to be careful (so careful!) not to worship the created thing more than the Creator (Romans 1:24-25). It's idol worship, letting the worlds things or even God's blessings, take the place of your love of Jesus. God convicted me of this sin in my life just this morning. I need His cleansing power SO much in this area!

Thanks to Amber for patiently helping me to get this shot! :)

Jesus wants us to know Him here in the present. Letting Him be the center is the only way we can be fulfilled. I need to hear this again and again and again. I don't need life to move on. God has me here. This is where I can find Him, where I can know Him. 

So live here, don't be impatient. Ask God for forgiveness and let the living now in Him excite you for what's to come. The time coming when we won't have to worry about time at all and we can finally, completely and eternally, live in the now with Jesus Christ. 

"But the steadfast love of the love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all." 

Psalm 103:17-19

"You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways."

Isaiah 64:5

"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay you are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand."

Isaiah 64:8