What does it take to grow a tree?
Psalm 1 describes a blessed person like this:
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.
I picture that tree blowing in the wind-
it grew from a tiny sapling, and each year put out new shoots. Its branches grew up towards the light, and as it matured it began to bear fruit. There may have been times when bad weather or disease threatened the health of the tree, but its roots were strong and firmly planted in good soil, and it survived and flourished.
It's an encouraging picture of what growing in Christ might look like. Maybe we feel like a tender, fragile sapling clinging on desperately, not sure if we will make it. Or maybe we feel as if it's winter, and we've gone into hibernation. Others seem to us to bear branches of ripe peaches while we are lucky if a wizened crab-apple grows.
But what we are cultivating here is not cress or mung beans, sprouting in a few days. A tree takes years to grow, and there will be times and seasons when nothing much seems to be happening at all. Life comes to the tree through its roots, planted by streams of water. If we are rooted in the Source of life, we have this hope- that we will grow into people who yield fruit, people who can weather the storms, people who have a strength that comes from where they are planted.
Jesus said to the woman at the well,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4: 13,14
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.
I picture that tree blowing in the wind-
it grew from a tiny sapling, and each year put out new shoots. Its branches grew up towards the light, and as it matured it began to bear fruit. There may have been times when bad weather or disease threatened the health of the tree, but its roots were strong and firmly planted in good soil, and it survived and flourished.
It's an encouraging picture of what growing in Christ might look like. Maybe we feel like a tender, fragile sapling clinging on desperately, not sure if we will make it. Or maybe we feel as if it's winter, and we've gone into hibernation. Others seem to us to bear branches of ripe peaches while we are lucky if a wizened crab-apple grows.
But what we are cultivating here is not cress or mung beans, sprouting in a few days. A tree takes years to grow, and there will be times and seasons when nothing much seems to be happening at all. Life comes to the tree through its roots, planted by streams of water. If we are rooted in the Source of life, we have this hope- that we will grow into people who yield fruit, people who can weather the storms, people who have a strength that comes from where they are planted.
Jesus said to the woman at the well,
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4: 13,14
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