Thankful For What Remains

 

Sometimes change arrives without our permission. Life quietly shifts, storms roll through, and suddenly something familiar is gone. We stand there looking at the empty space wondering how something that brought us so much comfort and beauty could disappear so quickly.

That old golden chain tree stood faithfully for 35 years—blooming each spring as if it were offering a yearly reminder that beauty still exists in the world. And then one season, the winds blew, the snow fell heavy, and its time was simply finished.

How often life feels that way.

We want to resurrect what was. We replay old memories, revisit old pictures, and linger in the sadness of what once bloomed so beautifully. Yet while our hearts are fixed on the empty spot, God quietly plants something new nearby.

A small replacement.
Tender.
Young.
Not yet full grown.
Big shoes to fill.

And somehow, if we allow it, gratitude slowly begins to soften grief.

The new tree will not be the old tree. But perhaps that is not the point. God’s goodness does not only live in what was — it also lives in what still can be.

Sometimes faith looks like cheering on the little sapling.
Sometimes healing looks like taking a picture instead of mourning the stump.
Sometimes joy returns when we finally lift our eyes and notice all the beauty still standing around us.

God is so kind to keep reminding us:
life changes…
seasons pass…
storms come…
but He is still growing new things.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
— Isaiah 43:18–19

And maybe today, instead of sitting too long in what is gone, we gently thank God for what remains…
and for the small new beginnings bravely growing right in front of us.

 

                       

                           Christine