My heart aches as I watch the branches strip bare in this season. When spring comes my heart thrills at the new growth, abundant, verdant, and green. Then, as the leaves surrender to the golden colors of fall with deep hues of red and yellow, I marvel at their new garments of beauty. But it also signals that soon she’ll be stripped naked again, as if she’s grieving what once was. Her inner part, the hidden secrets of her heart, exposed.
I understand her.
And yet You made us naked and unashamed, (Genesis 2:25). That is our design. Exposure was for our good. Our closeness. Our intimacy with You, no sin between us.
The first missile fired in the garden of delight brought an explosion of shame. Adam and Eve ran for cover. “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid,” (Genesis 3:10).
What You called good, the enemy called shameful. And we believed the lie.
And since then we’ve been hiding. Covering up. Afraid of being real. Afraid of being seen. Isn’t that what we long for—to be seen, to be known? And yet we fear it the most.
So we resist your gaze.
Oh, but Your gaze is for our good.
“For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable,” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
But we could not give stand up and give account.
So you bore it—the nakedness and the shame. The humiliation and pain. You bore it once and for all, you were stripped bare that I might bear your name, clothed in righteousness and garments of praise.
Oh, Lord, that I would embrace the seasons of stripping down! Coming clean is for my good. Tear down the idols, topple the tower of my own efforts. Search me and see. Yes, see! I welcome Your gracious gaze to cut away anything that grieves You, (Psalm 139:23-24)! Oh, that You would delight in me!
“Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” (Psalm 51:6-10).
And You did.
For the joy set before You, You endured the cross, despised the shame, and now You are seated at the right hand of the throne of God, (Hebrews 12:2).
I will not regard lightly Your discipline, nor be weary when reproved by You. For You discipline the one You love, and chastise every son whom You receive. It is for discipline that I endure. You are treating me as daughter. You discipline us for our good, that we may share Your holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, (Hebrews 12:5-7, 10b-11).
You love me! You treat me as daughter! You share Your holiness with me?! How can it be? I believe You. May it be to me according to Your word, (Luke 1:38).
So I lift high my drooping branches and strengthen weak roots. I welcome this season, I welcome Your uncovering, Your training. I’m unafraid of drawing near, but in reverential fear I fall at Your feet. I am seen and safe with You. Expose my heart to Your discipline, Divine Dad. I am Your daughter. Heal me for Your holiness. Heal me that I may see, uncovered, unashamed. Held in Your gaze, bathed in Your light.
Bare maple branches stretch high toward the heavens, looking to the light.
I understand her.
You’re good, God. And You get all my praise!
