“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.”
God spoke to me through a tree this week. I'll tell you how:
This is my patio peach tree. Jon and I bought it last summer because our "backyard" - the size of a postage stamp - was looking dull and dreary. Our dogs had killed all the grass in it, so we replaced it with pinestraw and outlined the patio with brick. It looked nice, it was just really....brown. Well, this poor tree was not very well taken care of. We were in and out of town a lot and it started losing its leaves a little early. I tried to revive it, but fall was in full swing. So, I wasn't sure if it had been revived and was just losing its leaves because it was fall, or if they were falling off because the tree was dying.
Assuming it was too far gone, I neglected it most of the fall and all winter....not watering it once. I figured people that came to our house would just think this was its "winter look" and in the spring I would purchase a new one with leaves and try again. Well, low and behold, this past week we noticed some red buds on the darn thing. And by this weekend, voila! I'm usually not a huge fan of pink, but seriously....how could you not love this tree! It is beautiful! The color! The bunches of blooms! I can't even believe my eyes!
This tree is a perfect example of how God and I work together. I take control of things until I can't figure it out or life wrecks it and then I leave them for dead. After I've released my white knuckle grip, God works undercover to create beautiful things that inspire glory and wonder. He reveals them to me only at the right time - when their color and fragrance are at their peak. Then FINALLY I step back and worship. Finally I see what He was doing all along, despite my attempts to control and eventually kill it. Finally I give Him the glory He deserves.
I sing this song to Liam every night. I started doing it because I wanted to pray these sweet words over him every night, but I have found that it is mostly myself who is blessed by their message:
Great is thy faithfulness
Oh, God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not
Thy compassions, they fail not
How thou hast been, thou forever will be.
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed
Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
The days are long... But, Hallelujah! In the morning, the mercies are new!
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