Where do you go when life is hard? How do you seek peace when heartache invades the corners of your heart? What brings you hope when the horizon of life looks fuzzy and uncertain?
My answers to these questions may not look like yours, but one thing is for certain-we need restoration when life throws us curveballs. We need a healing place as a source of comfort, hope, peace and renewal. I find that it is in God’s beautiful gardens where I am most at peace and ready for Him to begin the process of healing. My healing place looks like…
Tree-lined pathways welcoming me in an invitation of renewal and rest. Bold colors providing a pop against the blue sky. Leaves transforming in color and descending in a swirl to the ground. Many paths stretching out and beckoning me to explore and find my way. Peace enters as my footsteps match the easy exhale and inhale of my breath. The garden sanctuary invites me into the healing place – where hurt’s cracks and crevices are allowed to heal.
Anxiety disrupts our newsfeed with story after story of devastation, hurt, dissonance and doubt. Faster than we clear away the mess more is sure to follow on its heals. If that isn’t enough, many people experience their own form of anxiety when life’s plans change quickly. Where do you find your peace and how do you create the space to fit the broken pieces?
Life’s healing places are found wherever your broken heart opens up. It is where you let go of the anxiousness and find the best parts of who you are. Healing is sitting in a place of tension as the world swirls around you knowing that this is exactly where you need to be.
[Tweet “The healing place is where you open your broken heart&invite God to sit in the tension with you.”]
The last year has been a journey of seeking, uncertainty and more recently healing. When life started to begin its uphill descent, I learned the downhill slide was sure to follow. This is not meant to be a frustration point but a reality check. My roller coaster ride, with its bumps and sharp turns has finally begun to slow down and make its way back to home base. But my life is not yours and I know for a fact that your bumpy ride is far from over or maybe just beginning.
When I stepped out of the way and allowed God to walk alongside me in this journey, the life lessons began. God is so gracious to meet us right where we are and sit with us. God taught me:
~To let go of the mess and move out of the way.
In our brokenness, God loves nothing more than to step in and do what He does best.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. Isaiah 58:9
~How holding on to Him with trust leads to brave faith as He draws us closer to Him. He promises…
No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua 1:5
~That healing only happens when you make the space and time for God to fill in the gaps with His love and grace.
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 29:12-14
My roller coaster ride is manageable when God is sitting with me through the bumps, steep ascents and death-defying descents. Considering I do not like roller coasters, I am thankful for the strength and courage I receive from God’s presence.
May your healing place embrace your brokenness and remind you God’s presence will lead you to something more than you ever imagined.
Embracing the journey!
Linking up with Lisha @ GiveMeGrace
Sweet Mary, your Sabbath offerings are such an encouragement. These days, more than ever I’m thankful that, like you, I find my peace in the Living God. Thank you for encouraging my soul today, friend.
Thank you June! I love being able to dig deeper and pause for reflection each weekend. God always meets me in the stepping away and drawing closer to Him. Blessings!
I love this, Mary. “That healing only happens when you make the space and time for God to fill in the gaps with His love and grace.” Amen. No healing can take place without His healing love and grace and without our opening our hearts to Him. I’m slowly learning this truth as I open my heart more to Him and trust Him more. As you know, a healing place for me, too, is in the midst of God’s beautiful creation. Now that the colder weather is arriving, I’m more housebound, but I can still soak in peaceful photos like yours and imagine myself in them. 🙂 So thank you for the encouragement! Have a blessed week! Hugs!
My heart is always refreshed when you stop by and join me here. I imagine that you seek healing places in your own life. I know you love nature and even though it is getting cold around here I am going to still try and get out as much as possible. I hope you can too.
Thank you for faithfully walking this crazy road with me. The beauty in it all is God and friends like you.
A walk in His creation always seems to re-calibrate me, Mary. The cobwebs fade away, my mind gets cleared in the praying and writing and talking through uncertain situations, my Lord and I.
And this season is my favorite. And this post serves as a prompt to get back into an outdoor routine. I needed to be here tonight …
Walking outside is a love we have in common. There is freedom in the outside space and it is most often where God shows up to teach me.
I am joining you in prayer that we all find the place that helps us to recalibrate. Blessings!
Love this reminder!
Thank you Tara! Praying your weekend was wonderful!
Brave faith is a big part of embracing the journey isn’t it? Right now it is for me an embrace of the journey with faith that I’ll be directed and re-directed, and the seeds are being planted and the minerals applied to produce the fruit, eventually! Nature too, is where I get back to myself, so to speak, rejuvenate, heal, and even create by framing pictures. Thank you for sharing your healing images with us. I recently read studies prove images of nature also heal our minds, body and soul.
Yes to brave faith. It is such a part of my story and I cannot move forward without it. I know God is refining and pruning who you are and where your journey will lead. You share enough bits and pieces for me to see that happening. I am glad we are kindred souls in sharing a love of nature. It always makes my heart happy and gives me much needed time with Jesus. Thank you for stopping by Lynn!
Mary,
Like you I often take comfort and find healing in God’s creation, perhaps because it reminds me that God is always at work – He never sits idle. Like you said, we often need to get ourselves out of the way so that He can step in and do what He does best!
Blessings to you friend,
Bev xx
We are good at putting ourselves first in most situations, but when we do we are losing sight of God and His plans for us. We live in a chaotic time right now and when I started writing this post I wasn’t thinking about the election at all. However, this last week has dished up immense hurt from so many people groups that I pray we all find our healing place. Spending time in this place with God, removed from social media will help in finding the truth we need.
How amazing that God can take the broken and manufacture beauty. I loved the photos of your walking path. Life right now is such a mixture of the lovely and the chaotic — so many angry voices and disappointed hearts. It feels very inadequate to say that we will pray for healing, and that’s because I forget the power of the Gospel and the efficacy of the message we have been given.
Blessed Sunday to you!
Life is loud and the voices that are loudest are not always speaking love and truth. It is a hard time but a redeemable one as well. Saying we will pray is not enough. Spending time in a place of healing seeking the chance to have real conversations in love is important. Asking God to lead our every word is necessary. Praying we seek God first and in the process learn how to live as He desires us to live.