Don’t Let This Happen to You
Dear Friends,
I paid an arborist to come out to my house a few days ago and look at the tree in my front yard. The leaves have been wilting and falling off for a few weeks. There is one branch on it that just died. There is a swing attached to that branch, but now I am reluctant to let my little grandchildren use the swing. All around the tree, the grass is green. I water the tree on a routine basis. And the ironic thing is that just six weeks ago I won the neighborhood “Yard of the Month” award!
The tree specialist looked at the 60 ft. tree and made a noise. It was hard for him to hide his verdict. It should probably come down, Mr. Roseberry. But why? Just a few weeks ago, I won Yard of the Month! What happened? The tree has been stressed…too hot a summer for the species. He mentioned he could see a little root-bounding going on. Despite all the water I had put on the tree, the roots weren’t getting what they needed.
He is the second specialist I had paid to come out and he told me the same things as the first. In short, the tree didn’t make it through the hot summer. It got stressed for lack of water. Then it caught a virus, dropped its leaves, and the rest will soon be history. It’s coming down.
There is a broader lesson here for us all. The heat of the summer stressed the tree…and led to its demise. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. In two different locations, the Bible puts up a warning:
In Psalm 1, King David talks about a man who is strongly connected to God’s Word, i.e. the Law of the Lord. The poet/king writes:
He is like a tree 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.
(Psalm 1:3 ESV)
The prophet Jeremiah is even more vivid when he picks up this same idea. He writes:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Could it be any clearer? Do you see the sign from God in your own life?
As we begin a tremendous program year at Christ Church, make a commitment to know His Word and to trust in Him. If you do, your own roots will go down, down, deep into a supply of refreshment and nutrition that will carry you through the difficult days.
What does that look like? I say to do three things. Just three…but do them all. 1) Worship our God week by week. 2) Grow in faith and knowledge and depth of insight. 3) Serve Him in and/or from Christ Church. How? Go to our website and find the dozens of offerings and programs, and get involved.
In a week or so, that huge tree—the one that was the cornerstone for our Yard of the Month prize—will be wood chips. Take the lesson, and don’t let this happen to you.
‘See you this weekend.
In Christ,
David+








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