The Death of the Righteous

I don't know quite how to say, what I have to say, but I'm gonna give it all I have!!! I was riding down the street the other day, and saw one tree in particular, that had leaves that were already turning colors, half was green and the other half bright red. I got excited about the prospect of fall, excited to see the change in the seasons. Well, it occured to me, that there are probably only a few people who will not stand in awe of the beauty of autumn, when the leaves are changing colors, and beginning to fall to the ground. But you know what? In all of our admiration, the tree is actually going through a dying process. Yep, it's dying!!!! And while it dies, we stand and say, "Oh, isn't that beautiful."

Then it came to my mind, when I'm in a test, and I am dying to my flesh, or dying to my will, dying to my ways, dying so that Christ may live, that it should be a beautiful sight. That people should be able to look on me and behold a beautiful thing. Not look and say, "Ewww!! She's dying." They shouldn't see decay, they should see the handiwork of God in all of it's splendor. Most of all, when God looks on me, in my "dying process", what does he see? Does he look and say, "That's Good"? Or does he see something that he doesn't want to see?

When I was growing up, we would listen to the local christian music station, and during the daytime they had a program who's theme song said, "This may be your turning point." Ah yes, this mighty revelation on the beauty of dying may very well be the turning point for my life. I've been in a...test...a trial... and it seems that all that God gave me over the past couple of years, he's taken away, whether permanently or temporarily, he's seemed to have stripped me down, and have me at a complete stand still in life right now. There are NO trains coming or leaving the station, as it were. :) I won't go into, all the things I've experienced, or my reactions to them, but I will say that I see a little more clearly what God is doing. Not that I know where he's taking me, or where we're heading, or even what his next move will be. But I think i've figured out what i'm supposed to do while I wait. Allow things to die, and as I lose things such as possessions, and pieces of myself (my will, my mindset, my attitude), etc... I should just let the beauty of Christ be shown. That as he looks at me as I die, and others look at me as I die, they would see no pain, no decay, but beauty only; Jesus only!