Scatter the Seed

The evergreen continues to be a source of lessons for this seeker of Jesus through Nature. I often wonder why God, through His infinite ways that He teaches me, decides to stand before me in His Creation and write on the chalkboard of the sky, soil, or anything that He says, "Grow" and it grows.  I love that it's almost taken me a month to write down all that He has taught me through the evergreens, but I know there's purpose in that as well.  By taking my time to write down what He teaches me, my heart lingers on it much longer.  Isn't that the way we desire it with Jesus?  I don't want to rush to the next thing that He's teaching me.  I want to make sure I've totally grasped the lessons in THIS moment.  

So, back to the evergreen.  

As Mike and I hiked through the hills of Breckenridge, CO, my eyes kept fixing themselves on the evergreens  

 everywhere.  All sizes.  All heights.  Some inches away from others.  Some feet away from others.  I don't begin to be able to figure out our God, but I do know a little about seed scattering, so as Mike was chattering some nonsense about gold mining or what bakery we were going to try next, my mind was thinking about seeds and how God scatters and grows them. 


Something that I have had to learn and relearn about seeds, plants, and fruit is that all I have to do is surrender to the growth, and most importantly, i am only the fruit hanger.  I never produce the fruit.  Jesus always produces it in me.

"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."  (Gal. 5:22)

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.  This who remains in Me and I in them, will produce much fruit.  For apart from Me you can do nothing."  (John 15:4)

But what happens to the pinecones full of seeds?  They eventually drop to the ground and scatter to be replanted and made into something new, to grow something new.

I see our lives like I see the cones full of seeds.  We are influencers of people's lives both in positive and negative ways.  There are things in my life that I have regretted that I wished hadn't planted seeds, but they did.  But I also know that there are seeds for the gospel that each of us have that are meant to be sown, meant to be shared with the world.  We are made to make a difference wherever we are.  Never belittle your influence in this life.  You were made for wherever God has put you to be a mouthpiece, a comforter, a listener, or a friend to another.  Your pouring yourself out, allowing yourself to drop into the soil of another's life so that you can influence and be a seed that grows something new for God's Kingdom MATTERS.  You may never be present to see the growth or the change, but rest assured, the God of the universe uses vessels everyday to grow and multiply His Kingdom, and you are one of many.  Embrace the fruit that you were meant to hang, to plant, to grow, to harvest.  It matters.

I'll Carry Your Load

"Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

In addition to being mesmerized all week in Colorado by the constancy of the evergreens and how they remind me of the steadfast nature of our Creator, God had a few more lessons He wanted me to grasp before I left.  It was almost as if the evergreens were screaming, "Let Me carry the load!"  I often feel like the picture above, but isn't this what we've tried to do since the Garden?  "I got this God.  I'm crushing under the weight of this, but I got it.  You're too busy worrying about the other details of life.  Mine aren't even enough to matter to You.  Hold on, let me strap something else on."

"Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you;  He shall never permit the righteous to be moved" (Isaiah 55:12).  


We all have our ideas of what a burden bearer looks like and how much weight can be held.    At times I have withheld hurt or information in fear that the load is too heavy, all the while, the weight upon my shoulders continues to deepen.  What God revealed to me in Colorado as I looked underneath trees that seemingly looked too weak to carry the weight of the snow is that I underestimate my Burden Bearer.  His Name is Jesus.

The branch in proportion to the mass of the snow that is weighing it down doesn't make sense to me.  The branch appears as if at any minute, it will collapse under the weight of the burden it's carrying.  I think we're much like the branch and we project our weakness to bear enormous weight on the One who has endless ability to bear our burdens and the weight of our lives.

Let your weight fall on the One who can hold you.  Your burdens are never too much for Him.  He is waiting for your trust and reliance that He can hold up under the weight of you.

Evergreen

I had the most amazing experience over the last couple of weeks to travel with my man to Breckenridge, Colorado.  Any time I have the opportunity to see different ways that our Creator has crafted creation quite honestly makes me giddy with joy!  As we drove our rental car from Denver on I-70 west towards Breckenridge, I quickly realized that there would be a theme in what my heart would gravitate toward the entire time we were there.  Everywhere I looked, all I could see were evergreens.  Evergreens on the mountain.  Evergreens draped with snow.  Evergreens bending in the weight of Winter.  Every day I thought about the evergreens, took pictures of them, and asked God what He wanted to teach me through them.  I look forward to sharing with you in the next few posts what God has taught me.

I come from the South where the seasons are pronounced and plentiful in variety of trees that make bold statements with each change.  We have evergreens in the South, but if I'm honest, they weren't my favorite (except for the smell), until now.  God gave me a new perspective of Himself through the evergreens that will forever change how I look at them.

Evergreens are constant, just like God.  No matter what the season, they are constant and green.  They are hardy through the seasons and don't sway in the winter.  They continue to grow even under the weight of snow and cold.  In comparison to other trees that bloom, fill with leaves, lose leaves, and then are dormant through winter, the evergreen isn't. The evergreen is just like God...EVER present, EVER constant.  God doesn't tire of being God.  He just is.  When I look at other trees, oftentimes in the winter I am unable to figure out what kind of tree it is when it's leaves and fruit are not present, but with the evergreen you always know because for the most part, it's unchanging, just like our God.

Many suffer from seasonal depression in the
winter.  So many things appear dead in the winter.  The evergreen is an exception.  As we hiked, the evergreens were a shield and comfort from the howling winds of the cold, just like our God.  If I were alone, cold and needed shelter in the winter, I would take refuge under the comfort of a evergreen, not an oak.  The evergreen is a protector, just like Jesus.  It is vibrant with LIFE, just like Jesus.

I am thankful for the diversity of our God and how He is our constancy when seasons seem lonely, dark or even lifeless.  He is LIFE and life abundant.  So thankful for the evergreen, but most of all for Jesus.