Some of my best ideas seem to come when I am out in nature, walking the dog and looking at my surroundings. Not sure if my mind is more free from distractions during those times, but I find it is a good time to think and pray. On my walks for the last few days, I have been eyeing small pinecones on the ground from a couple of trees on our property. I have collected one or two here or there to take inside to use when I put up the garland on the mantel during Christmas time. Most of the pinecones I’ve found on the ground are small, and there are a lot of cores of pinecones present, where the squirrels have made a good meal of them. For several days I have noticed a larger, fuller pinecone still attached to a branch, but the branch is no longer attached to the tree. I reached and tugged at the pinecone a few different times, but it was not ready to come off. This morning I tried again, but it was just as stubborn, not any looser than before. I thought, “It’s not ready to surrender just yet.”
Then it hit me – we are often like that – unwilling to surrender. Unwilling to surrender to God, to God’s purpose for our lives. How often do we “hang on” to the old, even though we’re hanging onto a dead, dry branch? Dead things will never bring us life. How often do we cling to the familiar, not realizing that surrender could mean being a part of something new, something even more beautiful? That pine cone will “let go” one day soon, and it will come inside my house to be a part of something beautiful.
Our lives are much the same. The beauty and fullest meaning come in the surrender. The surrender of our will to His, of our lives to His purpose, of our dreams to His imaginings for us. He is good, His love endures forever, and we can trust him with our Surrender.
Life By The Way 