In the hatching.

God has put the dream, the promise in your heart, He has a completion date, He will finish what He  started!

~~Joel Osteen

hatch-to bring forth or produce, devise, to create, to plan.

We were at a friend's house a week or so ago, walking around some property that bordered theirs, when my daughter found an owl egg.

It had fallen from a very tall tree above.

She touched it and shrieked,

"Mom, it's still warm!"

As I turned to look, she had already picked up the egg and nestled it tightly in the front seam of her shirt.

I knew it was too late to put it back down on the ground, now that her little delicate nurturing hands had embraced it.

I also knew, if we would have left it alone on the cold ground, a predator would snatch it up in no time, in an effort to quiet it's growling belly.

We couldn't have that!

We brought the egg home, wrapped it in a soft towel, placed it in a small basket with some hay and put it under a small heat lamp for warmth.

Each day we await its hatching.

We talk to the egg, speaking life into it.

We touch it softly and turn it several times a day, so that it can grow properly on all sides, creating a life of balance for this tiny little life within the snowy white shell.

We wait in the stillness of its presence.

watching. hoping. dreaming. expecting.

I gaze at the kids as they stare into the egg.  I watch as their loving hands move slowly over it.

I listen as they whisper words of life into this faceless growing egg.

It may or may not hatch.

We are unaware of this little egg's life before it came falling out of the tree and into our lives.

But, we wait still.

Hoping that one day very soon, this little egg will begin to crack and open, and reveal the beauty that lies within its snowy walls.

And although we do not see what is going on inside that little motherless egg, we wait for the life that grows.

If this little owl egg never hatches, of course we will all be disappointed.

But, its worth the chance to see.

Its worth the light that we shine on it.

Its worth the life that we speak into it.

Its worth the love that we invest.

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

This little egg, and the hope for its hatching and life to spring forth, reminds me of the dreams we dream for ourselves.

They may or may not happen.

But, aren't they worth investing in?

Aren't they worth the life that we speak into them?

Aren't they worth dreaming and hoping for?

If we just leave them alone, and never pick them up, never wrap them inside our hearts, they will be left to die.

Never experiencing life.

Never growing into something beautiful and wonderful.

We will never know,

unless we shine a little light on them.

God has placed a dream, a plan, a hope, inside all of us.

He is waiting for you to embrace yours, take it in, nurture it, speak life into it and let it fly!

Expect His best for you.

Shine a little light on a dream you have growing inside of you.

You just might be surprised to see what greatness hatches out of it!

Phillippians 1:6 (The MSG)

There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

Psalm 56:11a

In God I trust, I will not be afraid.