The image of a tree

Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to be on the planning committee of a retreat for International Students throughout the Netherlands. Although it took some energy to prepare, it was great to finally be away on the weekend with the other staff and students. There are many things that I would share with you from the retreat, but there's an image that came to me while I was spending time with God on the Saturday morning. It's a bit hard for me to share this, because it's quite personal, but I want people to know a bit about where I'm at and my journey with God, so here goes.

At the retreat we were in beautiful surroundings. There was forest pretty much all around us. As I was thinking about the trees, I had the image that I was a tree. I'm currently a tree that has no leaves and feels spiritually dead. I think that's how I've been feeling lately. I tend to spend time reading God's word only for work, and not for myself. I feel like I'm a tree in the middle of winter, that is just surviving. I've cut off so much of myself in order to just survive. It sounds harsh, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. God's word tells that 'there is a time for everything' (read more in Ecclesiastes 3) and I feel like I've been having a time of survival. The image that I got was more than this though. I had the feeling that Spring is coming, that I will soon start to blossom and new life will come from me again. I will no longer be surviving, but I will again start to thrive. This image brings me such a sense of joy and anticipation that I can't express it.

I don't really know what this image fully means, or how it's going to come about. I do know that it excites me and it helps me to understand and explain a bit of how I've been feeling. Let me leave you with a Psalm that has stood out to me, and continues on with this tree theme/idea:

Psalm 1

'Blessed is the man

    who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

    or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

   and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

    which yields its fruit in season

and whose leaf does not wither.

    Whatever he does prospers.

Not so the wicked!

    They are like chaff that the wind blows away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the the judgement,

    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

    but the way of the wicked will perish.'

SNOW!

A snowy world

This is what I woke up to! A white, snowy, cold world. Snow amazes and excited me. We knew it would snow overnight, so, like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning, I kept waking up every couple of hours looking out the window to see if it had snowed yet. When I woke up to this wonderland, I was so excited. Walking to the beach with my Dutch housemate, she was laughing at my exclaimations and joy from this 'normal' stuff. Now that I meantioned the beach, here's the thing that I can't wrap my head around- it snows at the beach!! I never imagined that it would be cold enough at the beach for there to be snow. But when we reached the beach, there was a field of snow on top of the sand! I guess it makes sense that if it's cold enough to snow in Den Haag, a seaside city, then it would snow at the beach. I just think of warmth when I think of the beach, and snow only happens when it's really cold.

Water, sand and snow! Me at the snowy beach. 

So today was the first snow for the season. I'm looking forward to much more snow and seeing this lovely white powder all over the place in the future! Snow makes winter (and the cold) worthwhile.

Autumn

Lange Voorhout in Den Haag

Sophielaan Den Haag

Autumn in Den Haag is said to be the wettest time. I'm finding this out the hard way! There are days when rain comes out of nowhere and there are days that look like there should be rain, but it just never comes. I'm getting into the habbit of carrying around an umbrella with me- just in case. Other than the rain, autumn has brought with it the beautiful change in colour of leaves that is the signature of this season. Although this happens in Australia, I can't ever remember it happening on the same scale as here. Leaves are changing colour and falling all over the place. The funny thing is that it's come all of a sudden. One day trees were all green, then the next day there's so much colour it's amazing. Soon there won't be any leaves at all!!

The other thing that Autumn has brought is colder weather. Although the end of summer wasn't exactly warm, I'm already in the winter coats I would wear in Australia. Scarves and boots are also a must. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning! It's only going to get colder as the year continues. Before I know it, winter will be upon me and I'll be in thermals and thicker jumpers/coats. The only hope for winter is the hope of snow. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. Today I went for a lovely walk in the autumn weather and took photos of the scenes unfolding in front of me. It was a beautiful day to see God's amazing creation- and believe it or not, it wasn't raining!