"As A Tree...."

(


Given sufficient time and patience, it’s amazing how a tree can be trained to grow into the most unusual shapes. (For more amazing pictures go to pooktre planted).It takes years for the tree surgeon to bend and graft and coax the tree to grow into the image he has in mind. In like manner, it takes a lifetime for the Great Physician to grow us into a shape that is authentically human and reflective of the divine image within us.

The first Psalm describes a blessed person as “a tree planted by streams of water….” What a marvelous metaphor. A tree must grow down into those underground sources of moisture. Then it can grow up and out.

We also need to grow down into the rich soil of truth. In the words of the first Psalm, “our delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law we meditate day and night.” Being rooted and grounded in the foundations of our faith is a key to spiritual growth. With such an anchor of conviction we can avoid being “like chaff that the wind blows away.”

If our down reach is downright then our up reach will be upright. We will avoid “walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, or sitting in the seat of mockers.” There is a sense in which we can be judged by the people we grow to admire. As a wise man said: “bad company corrupts good morals.”

When our down reach is downright and our up reach is upright then our outreach can be outright. We can extend the branches of our influence into ever widening circles. In walking through a grove of giant redwoods, we were told by a guide that their roots are seldom deeper than six feet. How can six feet of depth support three hundred feet of height and thousands of pounds of weight without toppling over? The guide explained that their root system grows out perhaps a hundred feet in all directions. They entwine themselves on the surface-roots of neighboring trees, which help to stabilize each other.

We were also told that most of the new saplings spring from those roots which reach out close to the surface of the ground. This gives birth to a growing community where everything is interconnected in a complex network of life. A Lone Ranger lifestyle where we ride off to do our own thing in our own way is very unproductive. Its “leaf does wither,” and it does not “yield its fruit in season” (take another look at the first Psalm). As we are woven into the fabric of a community of faith and we reach out to take the hands and touch the hearts of others, we grow “as a tree.”

A One Word Prayer That Brings Results

Who can resist the cry for “HELP” that this picture invokes? Right away we want to do whatever we can to reverse global warming so that the polar bear will have a platform of ice to sustain itself. Is God any less responsive to his children when they call out for help from their hearts?

The Bible is a library of 66 books. It offers commandments to obey, sins to avoid, examples to follow, principles to apply and promises to claim. I like the promises best of all. I have long believed that one of the best ways to maintain a healthy, positive attitude is to become more promise and less problem conscious. It seems to me that for every difficulty one may encounter, there is a promise, somewhere in the sacred scriptures, that is uniquely tailored to fit that situation.

One of my favorite promises is: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble … God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day” (Psalms 46:1 and 5). As I look back over nearly eight decades of physical existence, it seems that there is one prayer God has heard and answered; boiled down into one word that prayer is simply “HELP!” Perhaps the help did not come at just the time and in just the way I expected but there was a result that later I could see was the divine response to my prayer.

A long time ago, I read a prayer that I have partially forgotten. Part of it went something like this:

I asked for all things so I could enjoy life.
I was given life so I could enjoy all things.
I asked for power so I could do great things.
I was given weakness so God could do good things through me.
I asked for a charming personality so I could win favor with people.
I was given a humble attitude so that I might be a loyal friend.
I was given nothing I prayed for but everything I longed for.
I am of all people most blessed.

You can never predict what may come when you cry “help.” But be sure of this, there will be a response that may take years for you to discern as the answer to your prayer. God may say “no” or “wait and grow” to the literal meaning of our petitions. God has not promised to answer the words of our mouths but he has promised to fulfill the desires of our hearts.

The Feminine Side of Deity

We have the expression of someone “watching over us like a mother hen.” There were tears in Jesus’ eyes as he looked down upon Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives and poured out this lament: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).

The divine nature, I believe, transcends gender and is a perfect blending of the male and the female. Throughout the history of the church, unfortunately, there has been an overemphasis on the former and a serious de-emphasis upon the later. This has resulted, in my view, in the evolution of a religious institution which, all too often, is focused upon the controlling power of dominance. In Jesus we see a more perfect blending which often brings out the nurturing side of the Almighty.

In a parable Jesus points to a happy Hebrew homemaker as a metaphor for the kingdom. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened” (Matthew 13:33). The transforming power of God often works internally and invisibly, until all of society is lifted by its quiet and consistent influence.

The Apostle Paul who, in some circles, is regarded as the original male chauvinist writes: “There is no longer Jew or Greek … slave or free … male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Under the shadow of such wings all are infolded in the warmth of divine grace. Even those whom some would regard as a different breed, who don’t belong to the heavenly kingdom, are welcomed to a warm and comfortable place of rest.