So Much Potential

I was in my back yard yesterday, soaking in the relatively weak warmth from the late afternoon Autumn sun and looking around at my yard. It has issues. It has sections of hardpan dirt, remnants of what appeared to be a rock garden, several slopes, sheets of black weed-suppressing material under all of the flower beds (making new planting impossible until removed), and other issues such as a patchy lawn, an abundance of weeds, odd slabs of cement (that I still can't figure out what they were ever used for), and dozens of varieties of weeds. And that's just for starters. But I love it. I love it dearly, as ragged as it is. It has personality, character, and a nearly infinite amount of potential. And then the insight...

My beloved yard was a metaphor for us. I love my yard and appreciate it as it is, flawed and imperfect, but it is in the potential that the imagination runs wild. I can design my yard any way I want. It has so much potential, just like us. We are all none of us perfect. We are all ragged and issue-ridden the lot of us, regardless of how polished we may appear. But we all have potential, as long as we are still on this side of the grave, each and every one of us have unlimited potential, and God adores this in us. And blessed be this potential, for without it, there could be no hope for any of us. It is in this potential, this hope, that God waits patiently for us to get our individual, as well as collective, acts together. God will never give up on us as long as the potential is there that we can be saved, in any and every way. Thrive to impress God by trying to test the limits of your potential. I bet you will surprise yourself with all you can do. Go do good.