Fluttering Leaves...

            I don’t know why I haven’t taken solo morning walks for so long.  Summer mornings are warm and wonderful, yet I haven’t walked solo for months.  I think about it, usually in the evening, and vow to go as soon as Alex leaves for work the next morning…but I don’t.  I get distracted.  The phone rings, the laundry beckons or I have people to see and places to go. 

            This morning I went for a morning walk by myself.  I drove to the Chehalis Western Trail and plugged in my ear buds. As I walked, Needtobreathe, Switchfoot, Hillsong, Colton Dixon and many others serenaded me.  It struck me how important this time is.  It’s time with God, with nature.  It’s exercise.  But maybe the most important thing is the creativity (my lifeblood)…of music, nature and spending time conversing with God.  The inspiration flowed…slowly at first and then swiftly like a flash flood.  I struggled not to sing out loud with the music…

“Yahweh, Yahweh

Great is your glory when you go before me

Oh, we sing

Holy, Holy

Your ways are lovely So high above me

Yahweh”

(It sounds great when Needtobreathe sings those words, but nobody needs to hear me sing it, so I sang loud and proud in my head.) 

            The changing of the seasons was in full display on the trail this morning.  Apples decorated the branches of trees, leaves with traces of yellow and orange, some with bright red veins, drifted to the path in front of me.  Some tardy blackberries struggled to find the warmth to ripen on the vine next to their spent neighbors.  I noticed something in the grass and almost dismissed it as garbage (there was garbage nearby) but the pure white mushroom—perfect and untouched—glistened in the dew of morning.

            Then I saw a fluttering.  A leaf dangled and danced just below a branch.  Funny, because there wasn’t wind.  I stopped and watched.  Colton Dixon’s song filled my ears and my heart as I watched the leaf quiver in an invisible whisper of a breeze.

“This life I hold so close

Oh, God I let it go

I refuse to gain the world and lose my soul

So take it all I abandon everything I am

You can have it

The only thing that I need is

More of you

Less of me

Make me who I'm meant to be

You're all I want all I need

You're everything

Take it all I surrender

Be my king

God I choose

More of you and less of me

I need more of you

More of you”

            Why was that leaf moving like that?  Why did the slightest breeze move one leaf but the others remained still? 

            The leaf wasn’t connected to the branch.  It was separated, held in place by a thread, perhaps a strand of a spider’s web or a thread of its fiber.  The slightest puff moved it to and fro, it danced with every whim of the air. 

            Connection.  It had everything to do with being connected.  “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (Ephesians 4:14)  The leaves with a strong connection to the branch remained still.  Unmoved.

            That little fluttering leaf was a sweet reminder of the importance of being in close relationship with God.   Spending time with my Savior, reading His Word, offering Him praise and thanksgiving and sharing my heart with Him, and most importantly listening for what He wants to share with me.  I don’t want to flutter and sway or quiver with fear and doubt.  I want to cling to the One who created me, loves me and saved me.  I need these morning walks for more than just the exercise, I need them to strengthen the connection to my Savior.  Praying as I stroll through His creation, singing His praises.

            I can’t wait to see what He shows me tomorrow!