Unique Creations

 

On this overcast morning I was struck by the image of these two trees. They are neighbors, living next door to one another in two yards, side by side. One is enduring the winter with its green heaves holding fast. The other, stripped completely bare by wind and winter.

At times, we are like these trees. Sometimes feeling full and beautiful, we can handle whatever life brings with confidence and courage. We stand firm, the same no matter the season or weather. Or at least that is the way it appears to those looking in from the outside.

In other times, we are laid bare. Sometimes life strips us of everything and we feel exposed to the world. It seems as if life stops and we are dormant for a time, waiting, hoping, for life to return.

Oddly, both these trees do well. The winter passes and they awaken to new growth. As different as they appear now, come spring they will both be full and alive with leaf and bud and bird. They are what they are, so different yet the same. They follow their own course as they navigate the seasons of their years. They are not to be compared. They are unique creations.

As we begin this new year, what a gift it would be to free ourselves of the habit of comparing ourselves and our lives with the life next door. How freeing would it be to live fully into who we are, into our own uniqueness and calling? What if we embraced who we are and, unashamedly, faced the changes that come on our terms and in our own way?

The scriptures tell us, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The process will not look the same in all of us, for we are unique. Completing the work in our life will follow in its own course. Creation proves God’s love of diversity and our human experience reveals the uniqueness of each life. Perhaps by starting this new year with a commitment to embrace who we ourselves are, we might more fully embrace who others are, and in that, find joy.

Peace.