I love trees!  They teach me so much about God and His ways.  I have walked by a place lined with pine trees on a windy day and it sounded like the ocean, as the wind whipped through the needles.  The Seasons teach me that God is a keeper of promises.  He promised us in Genesis 8:22 “ As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” So no matter how long the winter seems ( and this past winter of 2013 seemed endless), Springtime will always come, because God said so.  But the most fascinating aspect of trees to me is the way they reach for the Sun.  If a shadow falls on it, the tree stretches and grows sideways to reach the Sun.  Without the Sun, it couldn’t produce food and would die eventually.  Trees have a two sided conversation with their make. They just do what they do; they listen, reach and grow.  And so the trees teach me that it takes effort and work to have a relationship.  I must reach up to God and reach out to others.  If all I do is talk, and never listen, I don’t really have a relationship with that person, it’s distorted, one-sided, all about me.  But when I close my mouth and open my heart and ears, I learn to love the other, and it becomes a healthy thing.  It’s the same with God.  If all we do is vent, and pray and talk to God, but never open up the Word of God and give Him a chance to answer, to speak, to love us through His Words; it’s an unhealthy relationship.  One of the songs I learned in my childhood church was to sing, “Speak, Lord, I love to listen to Your voice.  See, Lord, hear I am.

Jesus, thank you for how you have built life lessons into everything You have created.

Thank You for always keeping your promises and thanks that we can count on Your faithfulness

Thanks for wanting to have a relationship with us, through Jesus Christ, Your Son.

May we all not just speak, but reach for the Son, like the trees do, and let you answer us through Your Word each day

Amen