Being Beloved

So Fresh From God

“I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us," -Charles Dickens
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September has always reminded me of going back to school after the summer break. Everything was new and full of possibility. New clothes and new school supplies, new books, new teachers and maybe new goals. September in the Mid-west was still a little too warm to pretend it was Autumn yet.

But still, I would wear my new Fall clothes and regret it in the afternoon walking home from the bus stop. Years later I remember my own children starting school. The excitement of the oldest and the dread of the youngest. One child was happy about leaving home and going to school while another child wants nothing to do with it.

We do not all love new situations or new seasons. We were meant to change though. Our minds are set up to change. There is science behind the brain’s ability to change by creating new neural pathways as well as getting rid of the old. This is called Neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to adapt. Or, as Dr. Campbell puts it:

“It refers to the physiological changes in the brain that happen as the result of our interactions with our environment. From the time the brain begins to develop in utero until the day we die, the connections among the cells in our brains reorganize in response to our changing needs. This dynamic process allows us to learn from and adapt to different experiences”

Celeste Campbell (n.d.).

(https://positivepsychology.com/neuroplasticity/)

God the Creator has built within us the ability to change our minds and change our emotions. We aren’t too old nor too young to adapt, to change our habits, and learn new ways to cope with life. New experiences can be embraced. New seasons can take us from the deep sleep of winter and place us in the flourishing rains and sunshine of Spring.

We are not hopelessly stuck. There is hope in the God who promises to do new things:

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19

When depression holds us so tightly we cannot feel its cold iron-clad grip anymore. When we think we cannot forget painful thoughts. When we are so anxious that thoughts are on rewind all day and night. Will we recognize our God? Our Comforter and Providence?

We can be unsteady because we are in a spiritual sense children. We are small and we do not know much, compared to the One we came from. I hope we are still, “so fresh from God.” Even at 90 years old He is still faithful and He never looks at our small seed of love as not enough, as slight, as something other than what is really on our hearts.

Happy Autumn Friends!


Comments

doug caskey:

Thanks Jennifer for a thoughtful reminder of how I also looked at the beginning of fall as a child up until getting out of high school. The excitement of the smell of new textbooks, the new school clothes as you also mentioned. Thank you for teaching me a new word: “neuroplasticity” and a new dimension of greatness of our Creator that I had never heard of before. This fits and illustrates so well with your previous post regarding Ephesians 3:20, that “He is able” always to exceed our human-bound expectations. Makes me want to yell: “Praise the Lord”, or “Hallelujah” ! Your literary work is flourishing !! Keep going!

Wanda Burns:

I loved this, Jennifer!! Fall makes me think of leaves changing colors, pumpkin pie and hot chocolate!!

    jennifer:

    I love all those things too!! Fall makes me want a pumpkin spice latte.

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