As part of my routine volunteer fire fighter training, I need to spend a certain number of hours each year driving the fire trucks during non-emergency response times. To that end, I spent some time earlier this week just driving a fire truck around the island, making sure that I could get through some of the more challenging places that an emergency call might need me to reach. In the process, I was seeing the properties along the route from a higher perch that I normally view them from, slightly altering my typical perspective. However, it was the time of year that had an even greater impact on what I was seeing.
As with most places, the colder winter weather has a significant impact on the natural vegetation. During most of the year, the relatively undeveloped state of our island results in trees, shrubs, and vines that blanket the area, making it difficult to see very far into the properties that border our network of roads. However, when the cold weather knocks down the leaves, what had previously been hidden by the flora is now exposed, revealing things that would have been invisible just a few months before. So, the stripping away of the wall of vegetation combined with the higher seat position enabled me to see places that had previously been invisible to most who had driven these roads.
It wasn’t that I was seeing things that had recently been placed in the woods. Rather, the covering that had kept certain things from my sight previously was now gone, and I could see what was actually there – things that had been there the entire time. Without the lush green covering that obscured our view, the underlying reality was revealed.
Perhaps that is something that happens to us too as we get older. When our external beauty and strength start to decline, and people have more opportunities to gauge our reputation from our actual behavior instead of our words, it becomes harder to hide who we really are. The façade that we carefully crafted in our younger years gradually gives way, revealing the truth of our character and showing parts of ourselves that we would have preferred to have kept hidden.
The good news for us is that we are allowed to grow as people on the inside even as the outside is changing. Someone who is angry, impatient, and unforgiving in their youth can mellow and change as a person, so that what is ultimately revealed is someone who is loving, patient, and forgiving. Our bodies will break down, but our hearts can be transformed, our minds renewed, and our souls made new. Who we are on the inside will ultimately be revealed, but there’s no requirement stating that we can’t be more beautiful on the inside than we ever were on the outside. And thankfully, that inner transformation, made possible by the work of the Holy Spirit, can take place at any moment while we still have breath in our lungs.
For those of you approaching the winter of your lives, I encourage you to look beyond the externalities to see your true character. If you don’t like what you see, come and see us on Sunday morning.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron