She is Not Everything All at Once

The woman you want to be is not static.

The woman she is today is not the woman she was last week.

Her today has been shaped by the work of her past. The effort of each new day lays down and rests upon that of the last and the skills of each new year give thanks and glorify the fumbling work of her hands from previous decades.

The decadent meal she prepares for her grateful guests tonight looks over its shoulder and winks at the dry chicken breasts, bagged salads, and canned biscuits of the past, knowing that without them, this banquet would never have come to exist.

Likewise, the couch that sags under the weight of her grown children listens as they engage in thoughtful, loving dialogue with their awestruck mother. It looks deep within itself and nostalgically winces as he recalls each of the occasions when its frame was broken, its cushions stained, and it’s arms flattened by these same children.

He remembers the countless tears shed here by mother and children alike, the sleepless nights she spent on his sagging cushions as she held her sick little one’s hands, praying for their fevers to fall. He recalls the words to hundreds of picture books she read into their hearts in his arms, or the taste of the goldfish that artfully escaped little hands and now rattle within his cloth-covered frame. He feels his worn out, pilling fabric and pridefully knows that every cuddle he’s hosted, every discipline administered in his presence has led to the joyful fellowship between this graying mother and the maturing fruit of her hands.

In fact, every skill this woman possesses, every honor she receives can tell tales of what was always imperfect and never fully done. Her talents have been built by bricks of necessity, each one fitted to the season she inhabited. You may see before you a mature garden, but you must not forget that the garden of her life is the product of faithfully planting tiny, unimpressive seeds, of continually rooting out unpleasant weeds, and of trying with all her might to faithfully channel water from the Everlasting Well.

She was never everything all at once.

10 years ago, she was only a part of this woman you see now, just as she is only an imperfect part of the woman she will be 10 years hence. She advances from one degree of glory to another in every faithful moment, every act of obedience to her Maker, every imperfect work of her hands that leads to a better work in the future.

Dear heart, take off the heavy yoke of this woman’s assumed perfection, as though it were something you could attain within your own feeble frame. Put on the freedom of an imperfectly obedient life lived day by day. Look to Christ alone for your completion.

Indeed, this is the secret of the woman you want to be. For while she was never everything all at once, she knows the One who is. He has taken her meager offerings of service, and multiplied them like the loaves and the fish that fed a multitude.

If you desire to be like her, you must take the same path she has walked. You must follow her as she follows the Savior down the road of humble sacrifice, one act of obedience at a time.

She is not everything all at once, and neither are you.

We are growing creatures who must be content with the growing seasons.

Trust the Gardener, dear heart. He is faithful to tend to all of his garden.