Missing It

Yesterday as we drove three hours from Iasi to Vatra Dornei, I felt as if my heart could burst from  the excitement of our trip but also from something else…

Fall.

I love fall.

It’s undoubtedly my favorite season and right now Romania is hosting the most beautiful fall I’ve ever seen.

I mean, just look at this beauty.

After telling myself I wouldn’t take as many pictures on this trip as I did in April, I took more than 100 photos on the morning drive alone. The scenery was just stunning.

The trees here are drenched in golds and reds, rusty oranges and light browns. The green rolling hills are dotted with those colorful trees and some of the adorable homes have a fine puff of smoke escaping from the chimney, making the countryside even more picturesque.

Halfway through the drive I began browsing the pictures just taken, deleting the ones that showed too much motion or was unfocused, and loving the way the photos turned out.

Then it hit me.

I was missing it.

My mind and heart were so caught up in the pictures previously captured that I was missing the beauty around me at that very moment.

Isn’t that the way it is in life sometimes?

We get so caught up in the past—which can mean reveling in it or despising it, wallowing in mistakes or glorying in past victories—while the present is breezing by and we end up missing what God has for us in this moment.

We can also miss the present by looking to the future. We can become overloaded mentally and emotionally by anticipating, dreaming, hoping and imagining the future and thereby miss what God has for this day, this season of our life.

“Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” –Colossians 3:17 

• Can we really say we’re dwelling in the past in the name of the Lord Jesus?
• Can we say we’re dreaming and making scenario after possible scenario for our future in the name of the Lord Jesus?
• Single women, can we say we’re obsessing over our future wedding and marriage, what our future husband will be like and how great our lives will become when he finds us, in the name of the Lord Jesus?

Absolutely not. That’s ridiculous.

We must learn to embrace the current season of our life and the opportunity this season brings. 

It is a gift. And it is good.

May we receive it as such.