Change Comes Quietly

I noticed on a bright sunny day earlier this week that there were certiain tell-tale twinges of color on the trees outside. I couldn’t believe my eyes! This was in the midst of days that blew cold wind howling around the eaves and dumped snow on us while the temps dipped down below zero. How did the trees know that spring was coming?

I couldn’t even tell spring was coming. I mean, mentally, there is that knowledge that it is March and logically winter won’t last till July. Some days it really does seem like winter has decided to become permanent this year, though.

I took some pictures of the branches of the Silver Maple tree out in the yard for proof. For myself. To remind me that life begins with little whispers of breath unseen. Like the life of a child begins by the tiniest of cells dividing, with little changes every day until finally it is ready to sustain life on its own, so change comes by the smallest things, over time.

I used to think that the big changes in life came by big decisions agonized over through sleepless nights. Now I see that life altering change more often comes by those tiny moments that daily shape our days. It’s beautiful and frightening all at the same time.

Love can come by those little whispers, over time, by the daily choices we make to choose loving actions, loving thoughts.

Babies come after 40 weeks of tiny bits of growth and change in an unseen world.

Faith can be built, changed, wrought from small daily prayers to a God willing and wanting to come in and change your heart.

And by the same turn, those very things can be lost by those little changes that happen every day, for good or for bad.

Love can be lost, damaged, hearts scarred by those seemingly small choices daily made to be unloving, unkind, inconsiderate.

A child’s character is formed by each and every little decision made that brings influences into their world. In many ways, J is a little puzzle with pieces put together by the choices his father and I have made.

And of course, we know that faith can wane by the daily act of neglect.

It was, for me, a little object lesson found in my own backyard, and reminded me to be diligent in my daily choices that seem so small, but that really have impact on the bigger picture and can have even eternal consequences.