When it’s time to do a makeover of any aspect of our lives, whether it is physical, relational, or spiritual, timing is everything. Makeovers have a window of possibility attached to them that requires a specific timing not always present when the desire for change is made known.

For the last 21 years, Jan and I left the front yard of our home as it was when we first purchased the property. It is basically a lawn that struggles to survive surrounded by a white picket fence that deer and turkeys hop over to do their thing. We’ve always had a desire to do a makeover, but the timing, vision, and finances were unavailable until now.

Just yesterday, everything came together. A new brick front porch and walkways will be installed. Jan and I will say goodbye to the lawn replacing it with planter boxes of herbs, a grape arbor, and crushed granite walkways. We will plant lemon and fig trees. In the middle of it all, there will be a small brick patio with a table and two chairs under the shade of an existing tree where we can sit and enjoy what will finally look like the rustic garden we once saw in Italy.

The Lord’s timing for the beginning of any makeover is important.  Years ago, we could have installed a sod replacement lawn, tightly edged with a plastic border and with sprinklers, planted a few shrubs, and called it good. We were tempted along the way to do just that, but deep down we really wanted to see and experience something different – a setting of healing and joy envisioned by the desire of our hearts.

If you are feeling the need for a makeover in your life, give God the time needed to bring about the vision of a makeover that will not just create another version of what was but offer something new – a place of healing and joy that is only found when God is the designer of the process. Too many have rebounded from a broken relationship and ended up with another version of what they left behind. Others sought a financial makeover that could not take place until past bad habits were dismantled and a new way forward was discovered. God uses time to prepare us to finally see what is best for us.

Just yesterday, everything came together. Jan and I were finally able to see the completed landscape. I felt the joy we would experience in the spring when the trees and flowers began to bloom. I became eager to do whatever it took of my labor to complete the project. What I was feeling was the convergence of a vision that expressed the desire of our hearts, It was worth the wait to finally see something we did not know could be possible when we first began considering something new. It will have been worth the wait.