A Lesson From The Trees - The One Year Praying the Promises of God

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?

Luke 12:25-26

After the birth of her daughter, Lynn felt God guiding her to leave her professional career of twenty years. She fretted over this wrenching decision, clinging desperately to her respectable income, her workplace friends, and lots of recognition in her job. To her, this was a big thing, and she worried that staying at home, deprived of interaction with colleagues and the meaningful work she had enjoyed for so long might cause her to become depressed.

One weekend as she walked in the autumn woods, she watched the colorful leaves cling to branches, struggling to hold on. With each gust of wind, as if by God’s command, they simply let go. They pirouetted with abandon in the breeze.

At that moment, Lynn heard God whisper to her heart, Lynn, let go!

She gave her employer notice and committed herself to enter whatever “dance” God was choreographing for her. Yet depression, doubt, and loneliness ensued as she struggled to adjust to life at home with a baby and without her stimulating career. Again God spoke to her through nature. Like a winter tree, Lynn felt stripped of the lush foliage of professional purpose and friendships. But although a winter tree looks dead, life remains in the roots. Likewise, as Lynn rooted herself in God’s Word, her life would become fruitful.

Trees don’t fret, and neither do the birds that nest in their branches. The trees bloom in season, and in times of barrenness they raise their leafless limbs in praise to their Maker. Stripped of foliage, they behold the stars shining like brilliant jewels between their branches.

Lynn took a lesson from the trees. She decided to stop fretting and look instead for the stars twinkling between the branches of her life. And each day she discovered surprises, new purpose, cherished times with her child, and a host of blazing constellations of joy.

Lord, I, too, have a tendency to fret and worry. Help me to trust you more and not to bank my identity on a job description, knowing that I am valuable to you simply because you gave me life. Help me to be carefree in your care!

Worry is an indication that we think God cannot look after us.

Oswald Chambers(1874–1917), Scottish minister and teacher