Transformations

 You have so much hidden inside of you. So much strength, courage, ability, gifts, love, joy and beauty to spill out in this big world.  It's easy to get focused on just what we see on the outside, or what we are feeling, experiencing or living in at the moment. Those hard, crusty times that try their best to hold us back, reign us in, and freeze us into thinking that this is how life will be forever.

This little flower sure could have felt that way all summer long. When every flower in the garden was blooming away, it stood stiff and green, encapsulated in a fuzzy, firm shell. 

Unnoticed. Hidden. Obscure. 

Stuck forever in the plain and ordinary doldrums. 

But inside, a transformation was going on, and at the right moment, that hard, compressed shell just split open and a beautiful new creation burst out. 

ALL THIS was inside that tiny bud the whole time!

This new creation doesn't even look like it came from the same plant!  It has a new nature, a new look, a new "countenance" about it...and life will never be the same for this little flower! Gone are those doldrum days when it's beauty, grace and potential were hidden. 

This flower reminds us of the "new life", the total transformation, the absolute turn-around that can happen in our lives when we connect with God. We can be completely changed.  We can become "a new species of being that never existed before". We can let the very nature of God indwell us. And that really changes everything. It's only a matter of time before things begin to even look different around you, because you'll be viewing life with a renewed outlook, a renewed vision and a transformed set of eyes.

We like the way The Message says it:

"Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!

 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Celebrating transformations in the garden and in lives,

The Velvet Lime Girls