A Lesson From The Trees

 

A LESSON FROM THE TREES

By:  Julie Souza Bradley Lilly

“As holy people whom God has chosen and loved, be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” - Colossians 3:12-13 

The leaves on the trees along the banks of our pond are changing colors.  Soon they will be released from the trees and will gracefully dance their way down onto the surface of the water to float like tiny boats.  

It’s a beautiful thing to watch autumn coming in like a slow wave of color that laps up over the rolling hills.  In preparation for winter, the healthy, deciduous trees know to release their leaves.  Deep within them the Lord placed an awareness of the change of season, and a knowing as to when it is time to let them go.

The Lord, in His wisdom designed them to release their leaves in fall, because with the pressure of winter’s rain, snow and winds, the large branches would not be able to hold the weight of the leaves, too.  The beautiful, majestic branches would simply break off from the strain.  They say you can tell the health of a tree by the leaves.  If a deciduous tree holds onto its leaves in fall, it is a sign that the tree is sick and will produce very little in the future, and may be dying.

So it is with us.  God knows how we are made.  We are not meant to carry the burdens and resentments from the last season into the next.  The next season will have enough burden of its own.  It is best that we release everything we can now, so we can bear the weight of what is to come.  

There may be some things we are reluctant to forgive and release.  We need healing for this sickness within our souls that keeps us holding on when we know deep inside that we should release.  No one wants a life of fruitlessness or to hasten our own spiritual death by holding on to things that should not be carried into the next season.

Matthew 18:22 asks the question about how many times we are to forgive offenses.  Father, now You ask us how many times that we want You to forgive us when we sin against You.  Of course it is, “every time.”  Lord, help us to forgive every time, too. 

Father, bring to mind the people and situations that we need to forgive and release in preparation for the next season. The trees do it naturally when they are healthy, and we should, too.  Father, strengthen and heal us so they are willing to let it all go.

Thank You for this lesson from the trees.  Be honored in the glorious surrender of our leaves.  Help us to release the weight of them now, so we are not broken by their weight later.  In Jesus’ Name ❤️

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