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Last fall, I scattered thousands of wildflower seeds in an area of our front yard that is a sort of dead space between the sidewalk and the road. Most years this area has become overgrown with weeds. An eye sore and an overwhelming amount of yard work to try and conquer. This year, I hoped for something different, more manageable and much more pleasing to look at yet I was not sure it would actually grow the way I had ideally envisioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all the rain, to my surprise and delight, it grew even more beautiful and abundant than I expected! I can look out our front windows and see a mini meadow with a rainbow of unique blooms. Even so, there are still weeds and while it is much less overwhelming, it still feels defeating at times. There are days I look outside and I can see only ugly weeds. I somehow overlook the beauty that is springing up everywhere in our yard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This meadow of beauty mingling with the ugly is teaching me lessons that I didn\u2019t expect to learn. In many ways, I can look at life through a very limited lens. I can even get stuck in the weeds, tangled and intertwined to the point that everything seems hard and overwhelming, nothing seems good, beautiful or life-giving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nYet when I take a step back, when I untangle myself from the wild weeds within and all around me, I am given fresh eyes to see through a wide open window of possibility. An invitation into a love that is so much bigger and more beautiful than I can imagine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For my hope is in the Living God who sees me, weeds and all. He tends to my pain and heartache, holding my difficult relationships and impossible circumstances. He stands in the gap between me and every lost dream and unmet longing. He cares deeply for even the smallest of details, the mundane and messy moments, my day to day frustrations and myriad of tasks and to do\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He makes all things new, all things possible and He starts by changing me. Despite all the ugliness, He breathes new life into dead spaces and creates a garden of goodness in and through me. Bringing forth abundant beauty from even the smallest split-open seed. In His perfect time, God is making even the weeds into wildflowers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cHe has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.\u201d Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last fall I scattered thousands of wildflower seeds in an area of our front yard that is a sort of dead space between the sidewalk and the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/a10-edited.jpg?fit=440%2C587&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YMk4-zH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2213"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2240,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213\/revisions\/2240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magnoliaheart.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}