{"id":388,"date":"2015-12-28T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/?p=388"},"modified":"2015-12-03T21:57:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T03:57:06","slug":"pine-for-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2015\/12\/pine-for-new-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Pine for New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The sha<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-377\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/388\/2015\/12\/IMG_1074-e1449201019792-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1074\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/>pe of a pine cone lends itself to give off seeds for new life. It&#8217;s easy to think that leaving those openings could let in harmful things or leave the shell unprotected. Yet it is from those openings that new things can begin.<\/p>\n<p>As the year inches towards a close, where did you find yourself guarded and closed this year? When did you push away what you thought was harmful or scary, but might have been meant to bring you to a greater sense of who you are?<\/p>\n<p>In the same token, when did you find yourself more open to the possibilities? When did you toss caution to the wind and aim for something greater?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe these next few days you can \u00a0pray for the strength to be open like this pine cone and share your goodness with others who might be a little too cautious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The shape of a pine cone lends itself to give off seeds for new life. It&#8217;s easy to think that leaving those openings could let in harmful things or leave the shell unprotected. Yet it is from those openings that new things can begin. As the year inches towards a close, where did you find&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":591,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pine for New Life - Through the Lens of Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2015\/12\/pine-for-new-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pine for New Life - Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The shape of a pine cone lends itself to give off seeds for new life. It&#8217;s easy to think that leaving those openings could let in harmful things or leave the shell unprotected. Yet it is from those openings that new things can begin. As the year inches towards a close, where did you find&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2015\/12\/pine-for-new-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-28T15:00:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-04T03:57:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1074-e1449201019792-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eelliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pine for New Life - Through the Lens of Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2015\/12\/pine-for-new-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pine for New Life - Through the Lens of Faith","og_description":"The shape of a pine cone lends itself to give off seeds for new life. 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