The Powerful Potential in Delight

It’s raining this morning as I type in my comfy recliner, steaming mug of coffee next to
me, sleep still in my eyes. I’m facing my back door, watching the branches of my Cherry Tree
quiver as if it were alive. This tree fills my whole view from where I sit; with bright red cherries
dappled all over it. It’s quivering because the birds have found it’s fruit. Not only the birds, but
the chipmunks and the squirrels and the children as well. And as I watch this cheerful chaos, I
realize: this is what I want my life to be.

This is the kind of legacy I want to leave behind.

Confused yet? Let me explain:My husband and I bought this home ten years ago. It has been a project of love ever since. If you were to see photos of it from ten years ago, you might not recognize it. We have spent years remodeling, painting, repairing the inside; tilling, planting, and weeding the outside.

This place has been the focus of my creativity, my imagination, and my delight as I have sown
and worked to see my vision come to life. At the time we bought this home, the yard was taken
over by hackberry and weeds. Over the last ten years my passion for gardening has grown to
where our backyard. A lot of the front has slowly morphed into a perennial paradise. This yard is still the focus of a lot of my passion and delight as I continue to plant and plan.

Through the process of all of this, that Cherry tree has always been. It was here before
we bought the house, it may well be here well after we leave. We didn’t know it was there when
we bought our home. I believe it might have been a couple years in when we actually saw that
there was a tree in our yard suddenly FULL of cherries. Here in the middle of all the mess ten
years ago, was a fruit-filled, power house, completely unnoticed and hidden.
One by one, old rotted trees were felled, weeds the size of men were pulled, the vines
that crowded the deck and windows were uprooted, and that Cherry tree slowly emerged into
view.

With every flower that I planted, every rose I pruned, that Cherry tree became an oasis to
more and more birds and animals drawn by what was being nurtured here.

You see, my delight didn’t make that Cherry tree, but it made room for it to be noticed. My delight didn’t bear the
fruit that is feeding so many, but it attracted the animals it would feed. Some may say that the birds and animals would have found that Cherry tree with or without my garden, and for some of these precious creatures that may be true.

However, as hidden as it was before, I know, that this Cherry now in full display, easily seen, is feeding many
more than it did ten years ago. It’s feeding my soul now, where it couldn’t ten years ago. And when I see squirrels and birds down the street from me with a cherry as large as their heads I find a new delight entirely: the delight of impacting a community. This Cherry tree’s fruit is
being spread all over my neighborhood and feeding the animals everywhere. It’s not isolated tomy little garden residents.

From the Garden of Eden, to the Israelites’ Promised Land, to the tears Jesus shed in
the garden of Gethsemane, so much of life is wrapped up in the metaphor of the garden. We
were created to delight, our delight bears inherent power. We may sweat and labor in a
garden, and watch the fruit of our hands grow into something amazing, but where our delight
holds the most power is this:

It without effort, without pretense, exposes the beauty and the provision that God has
always had available.

I am convinced that delight is a miracle. Oxford defines delight as this: “great pleasure,
or a cause or source of great pleasure”. The fact that in this world are things created that give
us great pleasure, exposes the nature and the heart of a Father God who loves, loves, LOVES
us. In fact, He takes great pleasure in us! Imagine that for just a moment: the God of the
universe, who created that Cherry tree and caused it to bear its fruit for the pleasure of so
many, takes even greater pleasure in you!

I am happy to surrender to the delight of my Father. As He nurtures and cultivates and
bears fruit in me; that without my effort could perhaps effect my community just as the Cherry
tree has. He has planted me in a good place, and blessed me with every good thing in Christ.
Just as He has you my friend.

Don’t underestimate the power of your delight.

It is a heavenly gift created to uncover divine provision in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Just like the Cherry tree still dancing under
the weight of the birds in it’s branches, there are mysteries, and surprises and gifts waiting to
be exposed when you give yourself permission to delight in the beauty that tugs your heart.