Linden//Testimony
BUDDING
Budding: adj.—becoming larger as part of the process of normal growth; beginning and showing signs of promise. It’s been my jam lately to look up words I most often overlook. And for some reason, this one just jumped out at me. This is such a beautiful picture the Lord has painted for Linden and this season.
Just like my other blog post said, I’ve been blessed to know Linden for only a short time, but it feels like forever. The kindness, loving, selfless friend that she is makes her one that sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24), and this testimony hit me hard.
Growth is hard. Growth can be so painful. But what is so cool about God is that He promises to be with us in it. He knows what it’s like to grow, to face challenges, to feel the pressure of the world. And man, is it hard. During this growing process, this hard season of learning to love herself, the revelation that came was simple.
“Maybe all this time I just needed to unzip the old man and let him lie dead in the grave he belongs to. Maybe it’s as simple as stepping back into the garden, because I know my Father is there.” Maaaaan, what a word. Returning to the place of complete wholeness, where the Father dwelled and walked with Adam and Eve, where all was okay and where love physically bore as fruit on a tree. “Maybe it’s as simple as kneeling on the soil and letting my hands work alongside His as He makes what I thought was dirty into birthing ground for harvest and blooms, for restoration.”
He calls out to us just as he did to the two in the garden. “Where are you?” I feel like today it is SO EASY to get lost in the world’s expectations, or even our own expectations and thought patterns. But the Father, the One who created it all, who knit us together, ALL of who we are—our wiring, our quirks, our laugh and our tears—calls us back into intimacy with Him. He is constantly pursuing our hearts and trying to get us to fixate our eyes back on Him.
My prayer so often is that God would give me His lenses for myself. In a culture where comparison is the everyday norm, my heart needs this reminder DAILY—
His words to my sweet friend, Lindy were these: “for though your branches are bare and your blossoms have withered, I will make them like the vineyards of Tuscany and fruit like that of an orchard. From within I will create a new birth, I will craft the leaves back onto every branch, restoring fruit—your fruit is just budding. Growing is only part of the process, there is so much more.”
Water represents rebirth, new beginnings, and is necessary for the growth of any living thing. Lindy is in a season of being called out of the old and into the new. A cleanse, a newness. A season of budding.
