Living Loved Retreat: harvest Church

 Introducing the preliminary sketch of "Hope" - which I will be completing at the Harvest Church Women's Retreat: Living Loved
“Hope” by Lisa Albinus 2015
The wind of the Holy Spirit is all around her, consider it coincidence that your hair blows in the breeze, or that a breeze washes across your tired brow... or know that the Holy Spirit is always closer than you can imagine - encouraging, counseling, pushing, straining, pulling, always glorifying the King. You look across your yard and you see nothing but dandelions, weeds that sprout up, weeds of discouragement and weeds of hopelessness.  Weeds that seem to want to drown out everything that you are working towards, everything that you are trying to do.
Lets remember that breeze that plays with you, coaxes you and refreshes you.  Stop trying in your own power and release into the Hope of the Spirit.  Hope in the goodness of tomorrow – regardless of your present circumstances and the lay of the land. Regardless of the weeds that pop up and quench and crowd.  Trust in the winds of change and the winds of goodness, and release your plans into His care.
Bend down and pick up that dandelion.  Is it a weed, or is a food?  This thing that was a burden can be looked at through a different perspective and it can nourish and help you to grow.  Eat it, chew on it, digest it and let the Lord grow and change you through the experience of that weed.
Is it a weed, or is it a flower? Pretty and yellow – stretching towards the sun- attracting bees and life into its folds…it is all about perspective really.  I remember, lovingly, gathering a “Bouquet” for my mom each summer and wrapping a ribbon around it.  They never lasted long, their heavy heads were too heavy for their little necks, but they were picked with love for my mother. Tell the heart of the 6 year old that they were weeds, and I simply would not believe you. Perspective, really determines if it’s a weed or a flower.
Is it the end of what you had planted, or the beginning of a new adventure? It depends how you look at it.  If you are holding onto a past season, or to the things that YOU planted…..God may be looking to grow a Kingdom garden. Release your plans into Him.  Blow the seed of hope across your landscape and trust in Him for what takes seed next.
Is that dandelion a weed, or is it HOPE?