BE THE TREE

BE THE TREE

           

            Ever notice how often people express jealousy about the seeming ‘good’ lives of the crooks, cheaters, and liars?  It is a colossal waste of time, of course, because we can’t make judgments about anyone or anything. We express disappointment with God and think God is ignoring them and their behaviors.  Confess it, you’ve thought that yourself. When we see their big houses and cars we feel slighted.    The very first Psalm, however, makes it clear how God feels about this seeming discrepancy.

Blessed is the man who doesn’t listen to or associate with the godless…

He is as a tree planted near a stream that yields

 It’s fruits in season; it’s leaves never wither.

But not so the wicked, not so!

The wicked will not arise at the judgment,

 nor will sinners be in the assembly of the just.

Because the Lord knows the way of the just,

but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

            I find it interesting that should be the very first Psalm.  Like your first school book that starts with ‘A is for apple’, or your first arithmetic book with ‘1 +1 = 2’, the psalm is simple and cannot be misunderstood.  In school you are expected to build on those simple principles.  The same is true of the psalm. 

           

            Even though the psalm was written long before His coming, this is an apt description of the life of Christ, who lived in constant communication with God.  It was that flow of grace, which sustained Christ and what he taught his followers.  It is also true that billions of people have lived such lives and from which most of the goodness in the world is derived.

            On the day my second baby decided to come in 40 minutes I prayed,

  “I assume you are going to help me with this, because this is definitely not my idea”.  

Everything that could have gone wrong that day didn’t. Since that day I have kept the lines of communication with God wide open.  I realized for the first time that God actually is there and will sustain.  I felt it as if I had drunk it.  Sounds crazy I know but it’s the only description I can think of.  Through the deaths of many beloved people, set backs, disappointments and fears, God has been at my side. Only recently have I understood that it has been more wonderful than just being at my side; He is within.  I know exactly what the psalmist meant because I feel just like that tree.

            Let us pray for those around us, that this knowledge will be theirs.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA