The Cottonwood trees are starting to “puff” everywhere. I have been wondering for the past few weeks when they would start sending out their “puffs” of white fluff all over the place.
Yesterday afternoon, I noticed the very first “puffs” of fluff … just a few tiny white “puffs” nonchalantly floating past.
Today, all kinds of little white fluff “puffs” have been floating sideways across the backyard all day.
When the Cottonwoods are in full “puff” season, it looks like it is snowing. Totally! Except, the sun is shining, the forest is leafed out with summery green, and all the snowy “puffs” are floating sideways across the yard … or, being caught by the breeze and swept upwards! … swirling around! … up and over and down … in a whimsical dance.
No one can make the Cottonwood trees “puff.”
They send out their “puff” fluff whenever God ordains it to be so.
Sure, some super smart plant biologists might be able to grow a few Cottonwood trees in a climate-controlled greenhouse, and be able to “control” when they “puff.” But all the Cottonwood trees across our whole region? Not a chance. Nobody can control that.
God does.
It is God’s purpose that prevails!
God is the one who brings the sunshine.
God is the one who brings the warm summery temperatures.
And it is God … and God alone … who controls when the Cottonwood trees “puff.”
The same thing is true when it comes to our lives.
We can’t control our life, any more than we can control the Cottonwood trees sending out their “puff” fluff everywhere.
We might try to control our life. But it’s useless. We can’t make the Cottonwood trees “puff” at a time we think convenient … neither we can we stop the Cottonwood trees from “puffing” fluff everywhere … neither can we control the “puff” fluff when it becomes an obnoxious “snowstorm” (which inevitably floats into my house, and ultimately creates a mess a fluff-debris everywhere outside!).
We can’t control Cottonwood “puff” fluff.
We can’t.
Neither can we control life.
But God can. God controls life.
Every aspect of life.
We might not like Cottonwood “puff” fluff. But we don’t have any say. It is what it is.
So also, we might not like aspects of how our life is going. But we can’t control it. It is what it is.
And so we surrender. We surrender our desire to control. And we let God be God.
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” – Proverbs 19:21
