Well, I was studying in 1 Peter this morning, and let me tell you, I learned A LOT! Thank you Lord!! You know, it’s “funny” how as you study, you may sit down to search out a certain topic, or study a certain passage in depth, but God’s lesson plan is completely different. That was the case for me today.
I began in 1 Peter 1:22-25, going through that passage and researching the Hebrew meaning for the key words, which simply put, talks about the love fellow brothers and sisters in Christ should have for one another. Well, I may have begun there, but that’s certainly not where I ended up. Can you believe I ended up with a study about trees. haha. Let me share with you how I got from “love” to “trees” and what God taught me along the way.
1 Peter 1:22 says, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently“. Breaking that down into phrases in my study went something like this:
“Seeing you have purified“–the tense of this denotes a once and for all action, and it means having the soul cleansed of moral defilement, i.e. having accepted Christ as your Savior.
“Obeying“–submission; obedience shown in living your life in obedience to the truth of God, His claims and His commands.
“Truth“–as taught in the Bible with respect to God and the execution of His purposes through Christ and respecting the duties of man, as well as with respect to the duty of believers to oppose the superstitions of the Gentiles, the inventions of the Jews, and the precepts of false teachers. In other words, standing FOR what GOD is for, and standing AGAINST what GOD is against.
“Unfeigned“–undisguised and sincere (DIC: of sincere–free of deceit, hypocrisy or falseness, unmixed, unadulterated) ANT: of unfeigned is “to pretend”. In other words…don’t be fake.
“Love of the brethren“–the love of brothers and sisters; N.T. love, which is known by how Christians cherish each other as brethren. (DIC: of cherish–to hold or treat as dear; to care tenderly for; nurture; to cling fondly or inveterately to. ANT: neglect, relinquish). Well, I was uncertain as to the meaning of inveterately, so I looked it up. (DIC: of inveterately–settled or confirmed in a habit, practice, feeling, or the like; firmly established by long continuance; chronic; deep rooted, ingrained.)
And this is where the rabbit trail began…haha. The word “ingrained” piqued my interest and led me to the subject of trees. I know very little about trees, so I decided to delve into the world of trees to see what God would teach me through what He has made. This is so cool!! Check it out…
When you cut down a tree, and if you look at a cross-section of it, you’ll see growth rings. Growth rings are signs of seasonal growth. They are formed as a result of cell division and the expansion of new cells. Now here’s the COOL part. Where there is no seasonal difference in environment, growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent altogether.
As I pondered that for a minute, I began to think of life as having seasons. There are hard times (winter). There are times of promise (spring). There are easy times (summer). There are beautiful, color filled times (fall). As I sit here and look at my hardwood floors, I see the grain of the wood and it’s so beautiful. But if the trees my floors have been made from hadn’t endured the changing of seasons, there would be no beautiful grain to see.
The different seasons of our lives passing from the hard, cold, barren “winter” times when life is hard, where it seems the warmth of God is missing, to the “spring” of claiming and trusting God’s promises, creates beauty in us. Without the seasonal difference, the beauty would likely be indistinct or absent altogether.
HOW COOL IS THAT?!!
The next thing I looked at were the “knots” we will often see in trees. “Knots” are places on the tree where either the base of a side branch once was or where a dormant bud once lived. During the development of a tree, lower limbs often die, but may remain attached for a time, sometimes years. The growing part of the tree will grow around the dead limb, making it appear alive, but when the storm comes and the wind blows, the dead branch falls off because it isn’t alive, drawing nourishment from the trunk of the tree. This brought to my mind the teaching in John 15 where we’re told to abide in the Vine, to draw our nourishment from Him so that we will produce much fruit. That’s our purpose — to bear fruit. And love of the brethren is a facet of that fruit.
Another thing I learned about “knots” is that they are defects which weaken timber and lower its value for structural purposes, where strength is an important consideration. The weakening effect is much more serious when the timber is subjected to forces of tension and/or compression. While knots provide visual interest, when used, the knot will “bleed through” the surface of the wood for months and even years, and often cannot be controlled completely.
So, I began to think of the places in Scripture where we are likened to trees, and I wondered what I could learn from them. Here’s a bit of what I discovered.
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yield its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither —
whatever they do shall prosper.“ (Psalm 1:3)
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.” (Psalm 92:12)
Hmmmmm. Flourish like a palm tree. Grow like a cedar of Lebanon. How does a palm tree flourish? What makes a palm tree different from other trees? Yup, you guessed it…I researched.
The root system of a palm tree is unique. Most trees have branching roots that grow smaller and smaller the further they are from the taproot. The palm roots are the same size at the stem or base. This makes the tree difficult to pull up. It also means the roots will grow deep into the ground, getting nourishment that is not available on the surface. In Isaiah 37:31, God commands us to “take root downward, and bear fruit upward.” We are to be digging deep in the Word of God for the nourishment we need to grow strong and immovable, despite the storms that come our way. There is nourishment we can find by digging deep that cannot be found on the surface.
Most tree trunks are made up of dead wood while the living part, the cambium layer, is just inside the bark. This makes it easy for animals to ‘girdle’ a tree, nibbling the bark around the bottom and thus killing it. The palm, on the other hand, has living wood throughout. Therefore, damage to the trunk has little or no effect. This, and the strong root system, allow it to weather hurricane force storms because it bends with the wind without breaking. When our lives are rooted in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7), the storms of life will only strengthen us spiritually.
Fruit trees normally decrease in fruit production as they grow older. Palm trees do not bear fruit at all until they are mature. This takes up to 50 years. But as the palm tree ages, the fruit grows sweeter. Consider this promise: “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;” (Psalm 92:14)
God does not want us to become less fruitful in old age. Instead the fruit of our lives should increase and become sweeter as the years pass. This is so cool! I’m lovin’ me my God-time this morning!!! I’ll share about the growth of the cedars of Lebanon another time. I’m getting to the point of information overload, haha. Gotta let the truths sink in and nourish my spirit. No truth “runoff” allowed! LOL Catch ya another time! Have a wonderful day!