Abundance

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I work best off a theme. Birthday parties, decorating any event really. A theme provides a launching point for the ideas to start flowing and pictures to start conjuring in my head. When my girlfriend and I were decorating for another friend we asked her a question to help us develop a game plan and feel for her space. We asked her, “Are you a mountain or a beach girl?” She said mountain. We both started seeing a room that was fresh, warm and cozy with a glimmer of girly glitz mountain lodge feel.  

The space had to be manly enough for the three men in the house, but soft enough for the two women. A gold tree stump for a side table. A chunky wooden chair softened with charcoal and a scripture address. A masculine leather couch lightened up with tone on tone floral pillows. Floor pillows for teens to lounge on made from worn, lived in old sweaters. Sturdy and soft all in one. Everything had just the right juxtaposition. One of the elements I had my heart set on was a bowl of pinecones. The texture, color and charm scream mountain retreat. While a pinecone appears rugged and strong it is actually the female reproduction part of the towering pine tree. May sound like a simple enough thing to add to the mix. BUT – we don’t live in the piney woods of Texas. We have a sprinkling of scattered pines, although they are few and fare between. So, I was on the hunt. My mom lives in the land of pinecone plenty and I even recruited her in my endeavor. The install date crept closer and closer. No pinecones surfaced.

Three days before go day I attended an estate sale. Glancing around the hoards of people and tables piled high with items I saw them.

Mammoth pinecones.

Just sitting there.

Waiting for me.

There were four for $1.00.

I told you we live close to pine tree country, but not this kind of pine trees. Right then and there God smiled, gave me a wink and said, “Stick with me kid, I’ve got more up my sleeve than you can ever wrap your brain around. I give abundantly.”

All I had my eyes looking for was an ordinary (for our area), everyday, common pinecone. God had a ginormous, big as your face, exquisite treat lined up instead. Even cooler – there wasn’t just one. There were four. So we all got one of our own.

When I look at this reminder laying beautifully on my coffee table all I can think is ABUNDANCE. My mind never imagined the possibility there was anything bigger and better than what I had my sites on. And that is exactly how God works. He delivers in ways we can’t imagine. He dreams bigger for us than we can even dare to.

When I look at my life and the good things in it, where God has blessed me abundantly, I can’t believe my eyes. Then I look where abundance is lacking. Those places, where if I am being honest, I want to complain about unanswered prayers or wallow in my own discontent, I have to be real and ask…have I fully laid this situation at God’s feet? If not, maybe it is time to. It’s also time to look around and see what “pinecones” I have been given and missed, not given thanks for or been bold enough to ask for. Only then can I step back and wait for more pinecones to appear.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed. Isaiah 55:13