Be A Tree
“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”
Psalms 1:3
In an old Peanuts comic strip from 1964, Lucy is trying to give Linus a nature lesson.
They are watching the leaves fall from a tree.
Lucy: “This happens every year. It’s one of the cycles of nature. There is a real lesson to be learned from this… Do you know what it is?”
Linus: “Don’t be a leaf… Be a tree.”
Leave it to Linus to find a deeper, kind of theological observation.
I think he has a point. In the springtime, leaves look really beautiful on the trees. They continue to hang on through the summer. Then, fall comes. Leaves fall from the trees.
But, the tree remains, even in the bitter cold of winter.
A tree is mentioned in Psalm 1.
“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.”
Psalms 1:3
Did you notice that the leaves in this verse don’t wither? They are ever green.
It’s a beautiful picture of what it’s like to draw our strength and vitality from God. Jesus said it this way:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
John 15:4
It’s possible to be like a tree. Steady, secure, abiding and drawing from His life giving Waters.
