Impressions

The storm arrived not with fury, but with quiet resolve, cloaking our homes in Narnia-like stillness.

As snow fell and silence descended, I discovered something magnificent in my own backyard: leaves encased in ice, their every vein and curve mirrored with flawless precision.

The frozen detail, perfectly preserved, spoke immediately to me of transformation—of beauty forged not in warmth, but in winter’s unrelenting grip.

I stood shivering before this living parable, not missing for a moment that class was, once again, in session.

The babies played. Sleet tapped against the windows. Flakes danced in the air.

And Creation testified.

The unmistakable lesson? There is a beauty that cannot exist apart from the storm.

If we are not careful, we will forfeit what God is doing in our lives simply because we choose ease over change and comfort over growth.

How often we flee from what chills us, humbles us, transforms us. We would rather remain untouched than endure the cold that shapes us into something new.

It is in the storms where God fashions us into the vision He intended. There, in the valleys and the barren seasons, God shapes us into His image, refining every hidden vein of faith and every fragile stem of hope into a thing of beauty and wonder.

This type of beauty is born solely along the desolate paths we lament and would likely avoid if given the choice. Yet it is there, beloved, in the frozen seasons of life, where we are most profoundly shaped.

Trouble-free fields of mirth may offer fleeting joy, but they lack the power to deepen our faith or carve down into the hidden corners of our souls most in need of repair.

Grace etches its image upon us in the barren places, growing us in ways carefree days cannot.

God, in His infinite wisdom, chooses the things most likely to result in maximum impact. So we resolve not to miss His work by questioning the ways in which He chooses to accomplish it. Instead, we yield to His plan and defer to His expertise as we await the masterpiece to come.

And though the ice melts, the memory of the impression lingers, reminding us of our calling to reflect the One who painstakingly preserves all His artistry produces.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.”
~ 𝐈𝐈 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝟑:𝟏𝟖

“Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.”
~ 𝐎𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬