Tree

 As the seasons change we see evidence of summer ending and the start of fall.  Pretty little yellow leaves lay on the green grass.  Grasshoppers and crickets and late-summer cicadas are moving around.  The trees are beginning to change colors.....what has been green for months is starting to get a kiss of yellow, orange and red behind the heavy branches......and I am thinking about trees.  

    Yesterday a co-worker and I were leaving a home visit.  We delighted in noticing a particular tree on our country road that had a big horse shoe shape.  It had been cut into a "u" intentionally for a power line path....but the integrity of the tree was preserved and it was full and healthy and waving at us in the breeze that always seems to blow in Iowa.  She told me she loved trees, all kinds of trees and especially the Weeping Willow trees that look so magical.  I shared her delight but also brought to mind one weeping willow tree I did not love that decided to split in half in my back yard a few years ago and destroy my patio set and the diving board on our pool.....

    Today I rode past the same tree on the same path and smiled, thinking of my friend and co-worker and her love for trees, a simple recognition of the beauty of God's created things.  My thoughts and prayers drifted to a missionary friend who is serving and giving her whole self to sharing the gospel of Jesus....and our decades long friendship has often come to a reminder of and encouragement through a song called Tree by Justin Rizzo.  It's an old song but a good one.  I looked it up on youtube and hit play fore the rest of my drive home so that I could remember why I loved it so much.

(Jeremiah 17:7-8  "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose confidence is in him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." ) 

     I started to cry.  I do want to be like a tree planted by a stream of living water.  I want to so badly and yet I have to say that for awhile now, I have not felt like that solid, deeply-rooted tree that can be found faithful in all the storms of life.  It has been a season of struggle for me and if I were a tree it may look like one of those pathetic ones struggling to stay alive, flailing in the wind or throwing branches and leaves around.  (Maybe even dropping a few on purpose)

    I guess that's where this narrative gets good.  Trees can look kind of crappy above ground if they are facing troubles and storms and less than ideal conditions of heat, rain, wind, obstacles, neglect.  Some seasons they grow and some they don't grow but a tree that wants to stand will grow roots.....because roots hold that tree up despite what is going on at the surface.  Roots don't care about heat, rain, wind, obstacles or neglect.  Roots are just pushing and pulling and settling in and feeling their way through the dark, rich soil of life....so maybe our roots live in the soul.  I want to be a tree planted by the stream of living water.  I want to be un-moveable and unshakable so that my roots go down deep....

    A tree that is alive must face all of the adversity above ground....in order to fulfil its destiny to be a tree...but to be planted by the stream of living water is to say that no matter what, the source of survival is the roots.  Deep in my soul I know that God is good.  He will grant me exactly enough to sustain me in this season and in all seasons, so that His living water can keep my roots going down deep until the end.  With that truth, I can settle back into my spot by the stream of Living water.  I am strong enough to tune out the noise and chaos and adversity once in awhile, and I can remember to not fear when the hard things come, and not get angry when the hard things stay. Some seasons last longer than we would like.  I can choose to not worry because I know that worry is a choice.  I can bear fruit. 

     I can tune out the guilt and shame and regret and stewing and sulking that are so readily accessible to my soul and replace those thoughts with a prayer.  I can ask for wisdom, power and authority to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ in this season of hard....and my fruit can grow.  

    So I want to be like a tree planted by the stream of Living Water.