Each fall, America celebrates Thanksgiving Day. In Romania and Moldova, churches delegate one Sunday every fall to celebrate Harvest Day.
On that day, the church will be generously decorated with plump pumpkins, a rainbow display of apples, golden corn on the cob, ‘taters, ‘maters, you name it. A bountiful display of things we are thankful for, and a temptation for kids to touch. (If you hear crunching behind your pew, a little person might have just snuck in carrot or two from the decorated window sil. )
One Harvest Sunday, a lovely young lady, Ana, entered a Romanian church. As expected, it was beautifully, and richly ornate with bright colors of fruits and veggies farmers had brought. But, in the midst of all of it stood boldly an old color-less dried up tree: root and all, twigs and all. A withered, naked and shameful tree, not bearing fruit.
Gazing at it, she realized, it depicted her spiritual life at that season. All dried up because it was not rooted by the streams of water. That first love she had for Jesus, slowly with circumstances had washed away. This God thing became nothing more than mundane, and rational, just like some marriages tend to get after many years of commitment- committed by habit, but not on fire by choice.
Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 have something in common. They both portray the righteous as a tree planted by streams of water.
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked…That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.” Psalm 1:1a-3
I love that it specifies what kind of water it is: not lake water (stale), not ocean water (salty), but stream water or ‘moving water’.
Hmm… Is it not how God’s word is described, ‘alive’, ‘active’, in other words moving? Not salty to kill, not too sweet to tickle our ears with what we want to hear, but ‘moving’.
God’s word encourages the down, uplifts the fallen, rebukes the stubborn, judges the wicked- it moves us, it painfully changes us removing the dross, so we can be pure gold presented to Him one day.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
Food For Thought:
How often do you allow ‘the sword of the Spirit’ (Eph. 6:17) to dig deep into the heart’s attitude?
Reevaluate your spiritual life. Are you so caught up in today’s to-do list, that you allowed yourself to slowly wither, blaming time and responsibilities for your lack of staying fruitful?
If you know your roots are firmly planted by the stream , look for someone else that may need your assistance not to wither and dry up.
Memorize And Meditate
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua 1:8