Quite frankly, Girlfriends, I thank God each day He wakes me up to His beautiful world!
The first little, and I mean little, snowflakes of the impending snowstorm are starting to flutter outside my window as I write to you.
I am so glad I got up early and walked Oreo before the temperatures dropped. I enjoy my mornings walks with our dog. I usually start out in the same direction each day, circling around the corner to the east side of the house and heading north on the sidewalk. I have to tell you, though, that we do not get far past our yard before we make the first stop. Sometimes we halt because Oreo is doing the pee-pee dance! But, usually, I am the one pausing to meditate, while she looks up at me with pleading eyes as if to say, “Who’s walk is this, anyway?”
So what give me pause so shortly into our morning stroll?
A tree.
Not just any tree, mind you. My street, my neighborhood, is full of barren trees lining the streets and in the yards.
So what makes this tree under which I stand so special from November to late March?
Leaves.
Not just any leaves, mind you. DEAD leaves.
This tree is completely cloaked in dead, brown, lifeless leaves.
It isn’t beautiful; this tree is honestly just as much a reminder of the bitter cold, stagnant days of winter as the bare trees surrounding it.
Yet I stop beneath this tree every single day…and LISTEN.
What this tree DOES have, on most days, is a rustling murmur that whispers to me in the silence of the season. As the wind passes through the brown, crinkled foliage, I hear the voice of God calling out to me: “I am still here. Do not believe your eyes—what appears dead is really alive!”
What a way to start my day, ANY day, not just TGIFridays!
My neighbor’s oak tree is God’s auditory reminder that HE IS ALIVE and present in this world, in my world, in YOUR world.
My Girlfriends, God is calling you today; can you hear Him? Have even you stopped to listen? It may only be a whisper, or the wind through the dry leaves of an oak tree. But make no mistake, He is alive, and He wants to be your friend too. God is calling you to a relationship with HIM. Figuratively or literally, whether you are living in a place where the trees are green and the flowers in bloom OR you are passing each day in the dormancy and dead of winter, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Spend some time with your Lord today. He wrote you the most beautiful love letter ever—better than any Hallmark Valentine’s Day card –it’s The Bible. I urge you today to hear from the greatest love of your life and know that YOU are His love!
In case you need a place to start, and since it is close to Valentine’s Day, I will leave you with some of God’s poetry: a Psalm. How amazing that in Psalm 1, Verses 1-4, God talks to us about WALKING, MEDITATING, A TREE, WITHERING LEAVES, and WIND. (And even more amazing is the fact that I wrote this note to you BEFORE I looked up a verse to go with it! Glory to God!)
TGIFriday, and Thank God for _____________.
(My answer is GIRLFRIENDS! Love You!)
Scripture:
Psalm 1:1-4
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
