Come as you are

The words “Come as you are,” washed over me as I ran down the road, stirring up the leaves as I passed by. I thought of the changing seasons and how that parallels to so much of life. What if the trees stubbornly resisted the impending dropping of leaves? Or decided they would not grow new ones this year because they love the winter too much? Sometimes, honestly, that’s how I feel. I don’t want to grow, it’s hard. I don’t want to change seasons, for that requires changing out clothes and I just got used to everything. Why can’t things just stay the way they are?! But if the leaves don’t drop in fall, the tree would die in winter for lack of food. If no bud of leaves appear in Spring, that tree is future firewood. Change is ordained by God and good for us that we may grow and thrive.

    What season is your marriage in? Are you brightly colored, but falling quickly? Are your branches bare and cold, yet surviving the winter months? Maybe you’re experiencing the first buds of Spring and you see many days of green ahead. Wherever you are, Come As You Are. This marriage relationship is rooted in Trust and Unity. Without those, there is no foundation in which to grow. Trust means if something’s going on, I should be one of the first people to know about it! Unity means, if something’s going on with YOU, then it’s going on with ME because You affect ME! Then trust answers back with, there’s no other person in this whole world I would rather be discussing THIS with or going through THIS with, no matter how ugly. Finally, unity replies once more with, Thank You. I need you. I need your help, your support, your love.

    Our love for each other must be unconditional. Yes, we have feelings and emotions and we will mess up. But the goal is authentic, transparent always and forever Love. Not a love that’s earned or taken away. A love that covers our bare branches in winter. Celebrates in the variety of color in fall. Nurtures the first buds of spring and embraces long into the the night of summer.

    Where are you in this unique, God ordained, seasonal union called marriage? Come as you are. Come together and commit to riding the seasonal shifts with Trust and Unity.

May the words of Jeremiah remind us Who to ultimately trust:

Jeremiah 17:5-8

Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”

“ Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Dear Father,

I pray for the marriages of all who read these words. I pray for your Power to help us be authentic and real with one another, sharing our struggles and temptations, yet also celebrating the joys life brings. Help us be ONE. You designed this Unity, and it’s only by You we can walk it out. Help us not trust our flesh or man’s wisdom, but may we trust YOU. May you Redeem the marriages that are hurt and stained and show us how to bear fruit even when the heat comes. By your Power and in Jesus name, Amen.