So. This Clematis.

 

 

It's the Wallpaper on my Desktop every day.  It's there to remind me of something important that I think I can too easily forget:  God is more interested in helping me to change than I realize.

 

 

It actually all began with a rosebush.  A really pretty, but a really unhealthy rosebush.  A few years ago we had a very harsh winter, and that unhealthy rosebush simply didn't have the oomph to fight any longer.  I was pre-RA, so I and that rosebush had it out.  After a long morning of digging, I finally won, and pulled out the remaining errant roots that had invaded my neighbor's fence foundation!  No wonder that rosebush struggled, I thought! The roots were so bad!  And as I was resting my weary back, I knew that the Lord was giving me an object lesson.  It was hard work digging out that bad root, and it took a long time! But eventually, even those errant roots had to surrender to the power of the shovel.  . . . .  So it is, with my errant roots.  Eventually, even the stubborn roots of anxiety and pride that I think are unchangeable, will surrender to the shovel of God's Working. 

 

On these days when I am forced inside by Winter's Cold, God's shovel is chipping away at the roots of pride and anxiety that are still clinging in my heart.  I may not like the feel of that shovel, but I know that His New Grace will bloom when these old roots are finally removed.  Just like that beautiful Clematis was given room when the old rosebush was taken out.

 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."   ---2 Corinthians 5:17