Their Leaves Will Not Wither

My husband was working outside this morning and since then we have been talking about leaves.  He was raking them and mentioned it to me.  Yes it’s just barely fall at the end of November!  It’s Texas.  It brought several verses to mind, and I thought that as we enter this Christmas season in the midst of an unstable economy they could prove to be relevant.   While we must be responsible with what the Lord has given us, we should check our generosity level.  We can be tempted to hold back, or not be a generous as normal.  We can be less generous with ourselves, our families, our friends, and the less fortunate.  Although we may see those around us as trees whose leaves are falling.  Although we may think we are entering an “economic winter” full of scarcity, because of what we see around us.  Although it may seem that leaves are falling all around us and the fruit harvest appears to be far off, we must recognize that the Bible speaks of two types of trees.

There is a tree who’s leaves wither and fall, and there is a tree whose leaves are always green and their fruit never fails.  What kind of tree are you?  I want to be a tree planted by the water who bears fruit every month!  How?  By trusting in the Lord, putting my confidence in Him, delighting in His law and meditating on it day and night, and by receiving water from the sanctuary.  Scripture also tells us there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven, but even in times of death, like in the Plagues of Egypt, God protected His people by the blood of the Lamb!  He provided a way then and He provides a way now.  Trust in Him.  Meditate on His word.  Receive His refreshing water flowing from the sanctuary.  

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river.  Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail.  Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.  Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

Ezekiel 47:12

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes;  its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

. . . his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.

Psalms 1:2-3