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 ❤️

https://www.facebook.com/Prayers-of-a-Ragamuffin-Warrior-171515087035441/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A City On A Hill

Image
A CITY ON A HILL By:  Julie Souza Bradley Lilly “You are light for the world. A city cannot be hidden when it is located on a hill. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Instead, everyone who lights a lamp puts it on a lamp stand. Then its light shines on everyone in the house.” – Matthew‬ ‭5:14-15‬ ‭GW‬‬ And I saw thousands of souls struggling in a churning sea.  Under the darkness of a moonless sky, without a boat, they were tossed.  Beneath them sharks swam, nipping at heels, eliciting sharp cries from those who flailed.  It caused them to cling to their neighbor, pushing them to submerge, sputter and gasp.  Exhaustion, chaos and hopelessness hovered over the waters like a mist, obscuring the small points of light that seeped out from around the boarded windows of the nearby city on a hill.  The city on a hill—a beacon of hope to those drowning, contained behind windows shuttered with fear. Lord, we see chaos all around us —man’s inhumanity to man— fear, anxiet
Read more

Paul’s Handkerchief Prayer

Image
Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father! “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Deuteronomy 31:6 Lord, we don’t have to be the only one in a room to feel alone.  We can be in a coliseum full of people and still feel lonely.  We feel alone in our skin.  You encourage us to not forsake meeting together as a church (Hebrews 10:25), but it is the internal companionship that keeps us from feeling loneliness in that packed coliseum. Father, I lift my friend.  Your Word says that where two or more are gathered in Your Name, You are there in the midst of them.  So Lord, as in Acts 19:12 when Paul sent a blessed handkerchief to the sick and they were healed, likewise, across time and space I take hands with Your precious child.  Together we bow before You and admit we need You.  We invite Your presence.  If they feel lonely or alone today, in their life or in
Read more

Beauty Among the Ashes

Image
Good morning, my friend!  Good morning, Father!   “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that   I would see the goodness of the Lord in  the land of the living.   Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage,   And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!” - Psalm 27:13-14 Father, we thank You that with You all things are possible.  All around us there are financial troubles, poverty, disease, depression, anxiety, divorces, confusion, disappointment, illness, loss, pain and grief.  The list goes on and on.  People are suffering, Father, and are clinging to the last vestiges of hope.   Lord, I lift up my friend.  You know precisely what weighs on their mind today, and which troubling thoughts strike fear in their heart.  Long seasons of struggle bring with them weariness and discouragement.  I cry out to You on their behalf, Lord.  You are able.  We ask for miracles.  Nothing is too difficult for You.  We ask that You take what the enemy intended for evil
Read more