Hold On

It's crazy windy in Middle Tennessee today!  Fall is trying desperately to make an entrance, but warmer temperatures keep it at bay.  The leaves have changed, but since we haven't had the rain that we need, it seems this year that the colors aren't as vibrant, along with the fact that the trees are letting them go more quickly.  As I was taking my son to school this morning, I noticed a smaller tree that was being whipped by the wind.  If the leaves could talk (which the older I get, I do animate and give things voices :) ) I believe that they would be screaming, "Hold on!  Hold on for dear life!"  At that very moment, God began forming this on my heart.  "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit."  (Isaiah 11:1)  As I looked at the leaves being battered by the wind and trying to hold on, I thought of the excruciating "wind" that this life deals us living in this world:  lies, pain, divorce, success at all cost, disease, disappointment, loss, exhaustion, addiction, shame, guilt, and the list could go on an on.  But as long as we hang on to the Branch, we have LIFE.  Leaves apart from the branch wither and die.  Leaves that decide to fly off on their own and ride the wind, never have a source of direction, and they are a slave to the wind.  The Branch (Jesus Christ) is the only source of true life.

For you

I did this for you...for you...even if you were the only one...for you

John 10:17-19 (New International Version)

¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.