Trees

I appreciate how God uses objects we know to explain concepts beyond our full understanding.  There are countless verses on planting, seeds, plants and trees.  Our faith and even our own humanity is often compared to each of those.  Trees are often talked of in the psalms in specificity.  I know there is a reason why a palm, cypress, oak or olive tree is named in each instance.  This alone has heightened my curiosity.  Why would a I want to be a tree and not wheat plan or grapevine?  In visions and prophecies trees stand for mighty events and people.

This is a topic I will further explore but the simplest part of this has become clear during these horribly hot dry summer days.  All of my grass is brown.  I have to water my gardens to maintain color and life.  I have learned there are some plants that thrive with little water and others you can't water enough.  All plants need constant care to look there best, sun and water isn't enough.  To sell the plants the dead pieces must be removed and constant pruning is necessary for them to look as they were created.  I have been working at a nursery and I have noticed something, other than I will never own a petunia plant.  There is one thing, no matter where it is that is doing fine, trees.  All the trees, despite lack of water and horrible heat, are fine.  The leaves are green and the grass beneath them enjoy their shade.  The only thing green in my yard are my trees. Seedlings have begun to sprout up all over the crisp, brown, hard yard.  I stand amazed and slightly annoyed.  I don't want a forest in my yard after all.

So I began to skim the hundreds of verses regarding trees, plants, withering etc and  I have noticed something.  Just tough times in life - droughts - cause flowers and grass to wither.  The only time the trees wither is when God takes away something from them and causes them to wither for a time and a purpose.  I see withering as a lack of faith.  I don't want to be a flower that is here for a season or less because I can't find Living Water in the tough moments in life.  I want to be like a tree that has roots so deep into the Living Water that despite what goes on around me I can live.  Live for year and years, even thrive.  When for a time the Living Water reroutes itself I can still stand on the Rock holding to the knowledge of the Hope of Living Water.  Some of you will be able to see the changes in me from my time of drought and fire.  Some may even see me in the season of fall or winter and wonder if maybe I had died or given up.  Really all the time I am living with my roots deep and my branches stretched out high!  Waiting. Learning. Loving.