Junkyard Forest

A rhythm I've become more disciplined with during quarantine has been a Sunday prayer walk in the woods. It helps bring calmness and peace in me. I usually go to the same park, and walk similar trails. Sometimes I check out something new I stumble across, but I have walked most of them before. The main thing that changes is the seasons.

I remember the first time I walked this  path a few years back and came across this old, falling apart car. It seemed so weird to just be in the middle of the woods, you can see the frame, you can even see some of the blue paint. I love old things so I thought it was so cool!

Recently I've taken to a new trail and I have walked that most of quarantine. Today I was walking it, and I saw probably four or five car skeletons. Just sitting in the woods! I have walked past there so many times and I have never noticed them. It's blowing my mind that they have been there this whole time and I have not noticed.

There is so much peace being in nature and looking at the trees and what's going on, that apparently I missed this junkyard forest going on around me. The juxtaposition of an old man-made creation being overtaken by the lush green vegetation is beautiful. I like the image that gives me about my relationship with God. 

Nature keeps going and keeps growing. We have acted on our own desires a d made choices outside of Him, you know man-made. These decisions are part of our forest, but the work He's doing is so much greater. It overpowers and overshadows the things of the past. There's a restoration, and he doesn't let those define us. They are part of our forest and they make us unique, but they're not strong enough or big enough to thwart his master plan. 

So now I will be reminded that I am a junkyard forest too as I stumble across them in the future.