A different way to look at healing.

Lately, I've found myself thinking about healing in a different way.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe in miracles. I've experienced a few in my own life, and I've witnessed them in the lives of others, some of those who I support. There are moments when God moves in ways that leave no doubt He was there.

But I've also come to believe that some of His greatest work happens a little differently.

I think He often restores our hearts the same way He created the seasons. Little by little. So gradually that if we're always looking for the big moment, we can miss the quiet beauty of what's already unfolding right in front of us.

It reminds me of springtime.

Think about it. No one walks outside one morning and says, "This must've been the exact moment everything started changing."

Although... if you live in Louisiana like I do, it's entirely possible to go from walking around feeling like a glazed donut because the humidity is so thick... to stepping outside the very next morning and actually wanting to linger on the porch. :)  But hang with me for a second. 

The more I've thought about it, the more I've come to believe that's often how God works in our hearts too. Most of the time, it isn't through one dramatic breakthrough that changes everything. It's through a hundred ordinary moments that slowly begin changing us until one day we look back and realize we're not carrying life quite the same way we used to.

It could look like this...maybe you realize you've been laughing more lately, or you're finally sleeping through the night again - not glancing over to your phone and seeing hello 3 AM. Perhaps it's little things like catching yourself talking about a trip you'd like to take next year or making plans a few months down the road without that little voice reminding you of all the things that could go wrong... or convincing you you'll need a 2-page checklist, 3 backup plans, and a backup plan for your backup plan. Maybe you're sitting across from someone you love, and for the first time in a long time, you're listening to what they're saying instead of getting lost in your own thoughts.

Those moments may seem ordinary, but I don't think they are.

When we're walking through a difficult season, it's only natural to measure our progress by the pain that still shows up. We notice the days we feel overwhelmed. We notice the moments grief catches us off guard. Let's be honest... pain can be a little bossy. It has a way of making itself the loudest voice in the room, even when it isn't the only voice anymore.

Lately, though, I've been asking myself a different question.

Instead of only noticing what still feels heavy, what if we also paid attention to what feels just a little lighter than it did a year ago?

That doesn't mean the hard parts never happened, and it certainly doesn't mean we've forgotten them. It simply means those chapters are no longer telling the whole story.

When I look back over my own life, I don't think the difficult chapters disappeared. They didn't. They'll always be part of my story. What changed was that they slowly stopped being the only story my heart knew how to tell. Somewhere along the way, my heart made room for more than just surviving. There was space for laughter, for dreaming, for making plans, and for really enjoying the people right in front of me.

Maybe God has been doing His work all along, and we've been so busy waiting for the miracle that we almost missed the restoration happening right in front of us.

Maybe restoration looks like finding yourself genuinely excited about something again, feeling safe enough to rest, laughing until your stomach hurts, making plans for the future, or realizing your shoulders don't feel quite as heavy as they once did.

None of those moments erase the past. Yet, every one of them reminds us that the past no longer gets the final word.

Today, instead of only noticing what still hurts, I invite all of us to take a moment to notice what's getting lighter.

We just might find God's fingerprints all over it.