I don't know if it's because I'm in the farmhouse, farm style, farm pictures, farm everything mindset. I actually didn't even grow up on or near a farm, and have never considered that type of aesthetic for my home, but here we are. I don't know how it happened. I started looking for really neat, clean aesthetic home visuals, with whites and woods and neutrals; before I knew it I was buying a framed picture of a cow as wall art and then intentionally using a gift card to purchase a huge black and white cow on a 24x30 canvas. Who am I?
This whole earthy, animal, cozy, farm vibe might be here to stay for awhile and I'm not mad about it.
I've written about this in previous blogs but I am amazed at how the Lord constantly takes me back to His care for creation and His creatures. He sustains and provides for the earth and everything in it and I feel like such a small small part of this world and yet He cares for me. Looks out for me. Protects. Provides. Sustains. Heals. Restores.
So those pictures of cows and birds I have hung around my house. Those actually remind me that He cares for those, so, He cares for me.
One way He cares for me is by giving me Himself.
Sure, I can look back and trace all of the ways that He has cared for me through His provision, answered prayer(s), healing, peace, patience, gentleness, conversations, and confession. But more than the blessings or provision, He has given me His presence.
He has shown me His character.
He has shown me His heart.
He has shown me His tenderness.
He has shown me His desire for confession and repentance.
Rooted.
The older I get the more I recognize my deep need for Him.
The older I get the more I realize everything else on this earth will not satisfy.
The older I get the more I want a sustaining water that this world simply does not offer.
"Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.' " (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
I love the visual and parallels of the verses above of what it looks like to place our trust in man / flesh and what it looks like to place our trust in the Lord. In v.5 'strength' can also be translated or understood in Hebrew as 'arm'; "arm is a physical organ for the exhibition of physical force. He who makes someone [or something] his arm, places their trust in that person or thing for assistance, protection, and deliverance." (Lange, 165). Placing our trust and/or hope in man or anything else in this world is like being a shrub in a desert. It is like having this deep thirst that will never be quenched if we continue to look to people, circumstances, and the world. But placing our trust in the LORD, this passage says if we do so, it is like we are trees that are planted by streams of water; the roots run out to the stream; and when the heat comes its leaves still remain green because it is connected to a water source. When drought comes it is not anxious, and it still bears fruit (and fruit isn't always the pretty perfectly shaped apple hanging from the tree).
Because it is planted by water.
Because the roots are deep.
So when nature takes its course and does what it does every year...fall, winter, spring, summer, repeat...the tree keeps on doing what it does. Growing, aging, pruning, parts die, parts come back to life, blossoming, blooming; but the tree as a whole doesn't die. It's roots are deep. Deeper than we can see from above ground.
Did you know that in the winter time the roots of trees function like a store-house? It stores up the essentials it needs to remain alive and produce what it needs for the coming season. In doing so, it carries those nutrients throughout the rest of the tree. Thanks Google (not ashamed).
In this world things are not as they should be. We experience brokenness, hurt, pain, betrayal, bad news, and heartache.
Where are we planted?
What is our water source? Where have we put our roots down / in or even whom?
When we're in the desert or in the middle of a hard winter season, what are we feeding our roots, and are those things giving life to the whole rest of our bodies and lives, or are they depleting us and leaving us malnourished; unprepared for the seasons to come?
We can trust His heart because we can trace His hand (sorry for the semi alliterated tagline. Bible school and Seminary does somethin' to a person ;) ).
Are we anchoring our roots so deep into the person of Christ that no matter what comes our way, we know that we know that we know...He cares for us?
He has given us Himself, an anchor for our souls (Hebrews 6:19).
He cares for the birds (and the cows). He cares for you and for me. Will we tether our roots to the things around us that do not give us life, or will we tether our roots to the only source of living water? Jesus Christ.
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