Withering Words

Autumn is around the corner and the leaves are beginning to turn. Soon they will wither and fall and the trees will be bare branches reaching to the skies.

Jesus once cursed a fig tree which had no fruit on it, and by the next day it had withered and was dying. There may be many lessons that can be taken from that but for me today I’m thinking about the power of words. The withering of the fig tree is a visual demonstration of the power words carry. Power to bring life, and power to bring death.

How many times have I used words which have caused someone to wither? I hope not often. I can remember a few times when a person has said something sharp or critical to me and that sharpness has caused something inside me to wither.

On the other hand, words are powerful to bring life. Many things are written in the Bible about the power of the spoken word to bring life or bring death. 

Jesus warned his followers to be careful with what they said, because we will be judged by every careless word we have spoken. Although many understand that to mean something for the Judgment Day, I think it means that uttering careless words is more powerful now than we imagine. 

We only know that which we see, but Jesus has given us many illustrations and parables and sayings which illustrate that what we see is not the reality that will last. What we don’t see, what is happening in the supernatural realm, is what will last. And what we say affects that realm more than we imagine, despite all the teaching in the Bible. 

In the Old Testament, Jacob stole the blessing which should have been the elder twin Esau’s. He tricked their father into bestowing his dying blessing on him. That may seem a silly thing to be upset about, if all it is is a bunch of words. But if the words have power to effect change, to affect the whole course of our lives, then the upset felt by Esau is more understandable.

May God bless you today and help you to keep a tight rein on your tongue, and me to keep a tight rein on mine. May he inspire me to speak words of life to all I meet, words which inspire hope and give peace even in the turbulent times in which we live.

Sheltering

Great sermon in BTW yesterday which has left me with an indelible image of a mother hen drawing her chicks in tight, sheltered under her wings, in times of danger. The truth that God is just such a mother hen, longing to draw us in close and protect us through whatever trials we are suffering, is just so amazing. The fact that Jesus wept over our failure to allow him to draw us in – he wept because so many of us stubbornly insist on sticking it out alone. 

Maybe I’m just weak, or he has blessed me with faith, but I know that I have pulled in close to God many times in my life and let him shelter me through the storms. During times of illness and bereavement. Years of various teenage rebellions and struggles. Disappointments when dreams have apparently died. Homesickness. Uncertainty. Gosh, the list is endless. (I hope he’s not getting a bit fed up with this ‘chick’ who cuddles in so often!)

Praying yesterday for the world. Just saying the names of various countries conjures pictures of terror and suffering, fear and torment: Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Vietnam ... the list is long. 

There is a story in the Old Testament about a king whose troops are surrounded by the enemy and it seems there is no hope. He calls his warriors to pray and leads them in prayer, saying, memorably, ‘Lord, we don’t know what to do. But Lord, our eyes are on you.’

In the apparently intractable troubles of your life and mine today, let’s pull in close to God and pray, ‘Lord, we don’t know what to do. But Lord, our eyes are on you.’ Amen.

Trees of the Field

Our summer weather continues to amaze and wilt us. Today it is in the 80’s – 30degrees C – which is unheard of in this corner of the globe. Loving it.

So Dusty and I opted for the ‘wet walk’ at Crathes Castle around 11 this morning. Or the ‘swimming for sticks’ walk – both names are recognised by Dusty who eagerly races to the car. Only today, with the summer weather we’ve been having, the wet walk was rather dried up! Well, only the big loch, really. The burns still gurgled, though less full than normal.

After several stick throwing diversions, Dusty and I headed on towards the Castle and I suddenly noticed the trees. Not that I wasn’t aware of them – they provided the canopy of cool which Dusty especially was loving. What I noticed, though, was how many broken-off branches there were lower down, before the leafy bits at the tops. I wondered how many of the branches were casualties of the weather – wind or lightning perhaps – and how many were pruned off? I wondered if any had just withered and died, malnourished from the centre somehow. 

Our lives are a bit like that. How many branches budded forth in my life, promising fulfilment perhaps, only to wither and die as I neglected to feed them? Ideas I’ve had for writing projects, for instance. Intentions of visiting shut-ins, perhaps. 

How many branches were growing strongly and then suddenly got broken off by external forces? Relationships which were broken – perhaps because someone died, like my sister Judy. Relationships which just withered because I didn’t nurture them. Relationships which became diseased in some way and were allowed to die.

Does my life have all the branches it is supposed to, or have i let God and myself down by allowing some to break off or wither?

There’s something so wonderful about tall trees. So majestic. So strong. Some, so ancient. We celebrate the bits we see, and forget about the branches that may have once given shelter to birds, shade to cows, but which are no longer there.

There’s a verse in the Old Testament about the ‘trees of the field clapping their hands’. Strange verse. But it refers to the days when heaven will be re-established on earth. When earth will once more be all it was created to be. Joy will be the norm, not sorrow.

Something reminiscent of branches in the clapping of a tree’s hands. I pray that on that incredible day when earth is once again 100% the Lord’s, all my branches will be restored, and I’ll be clapping them in jubilation.