Trees and Trust

One of the most inspiring places for me lately is my hammock swing on my front porch. Last fall, the Lord invited me there to just sit and watch. I would sit there almost every day and I would watch the leaves slowly fall off the trees. And as I watched the leaves let go, the Holy Spirit would whisper— inviting me to let go of something in my life as well. It was freeing actually.

Isn’t it funny how true freedom comes when we let go and say “yes” to the things God says are best for us— and not in the deciding for ourselves? I tend to always pick the things that lead me to some type of bondage, exhaustion, or addiction. Or I guess the more trendy way to say it would be “binging” or “scrolling”. But we’ve talked about that.

Spring is clearly upon us and it’s been glorious. The invitation has still been echoing from the Lord to stop and stare at the trees. I noticed that my trees are late bloomers. Yep, that seems about right. All the other trees around me started showing signs of new growth way before the four massive pecan trees in my yard. It wasn’t until one day this week that I noticed they were getting new leaves. Maybe that’s just how pecan trees are, just a little later than the others. I don’t know. I was just told to watch.

This week, I also listened to a couple BEMA episodes. Guess what they were about?

Trees.

Specifically trees in the desert. I would like to highlight two.

First is the Acacia Tree… click here and scroll down a little to see a couple pictures. Here are some fun things Marty Solomon says about it.

• The Bedouin’s call it the “gift of the desert”.
• It provides great shade.
• The wood is strong, so it’s good for building.
• The wood burns hotter and longer.
• It produces a sap that can be used for building materials and medicinally.
• It produces little pods and Marty said he’s been told ”if you boil a kilo of the pods in water, it will feed a camel for up to a week”.

“Now here’s the thing about the Acacia. Most of the Acacias you see will often look dead, because they have to have water in order to bloom. The interesting thing about the Acacia, is the Acacia can sit dormant for years. I’ve been told for 10-12 years—it can sit with no water—Just look like a dried, dead, no life there, haven’t-seen-life-on-that-tree-in-years, and all of a sudden the rains come in just the right way that the water flows to it’s location. And all of a sudden, after being dormant for a decade, the tree will spring to life, and be as alive as ever. And produce fruit and leaves and it will look green and amazing. But for most of the time, it looks completely, absolutely dead.” -Marty Solomon

Now the second tree is the Ar’ar “tree” (or bush)… click here to see a couple pictures. Also, note the Ar’re fruit. Here are some fun things Marty says about it.

“In the desert, you have all this dry and there’s some green, but it’s got like a particular kind of desert hue, like what you’d expect. And then sticking out is this bright, green, luscious bush. It looks just beautiful. It’s got these grapefruit-sized fruit on it. To the eye the fruit looks juicy, delicious, and it looks like such a gift to the desert. But in fact, this bush and its fruit is toxic and poisonous. The fruit looks and feels buoyant. But when you go to peel it or pull it open, it makes a popping noise. All of a sudden, you realize there’s nothing in it. It’s completely empty, except for this milky, toxic substance around the edges. You would never know that when you pull it off the bush, because it feels full and it feels like there’s something there. It looks like cobwebs or something. The whole thing is absolutely shocking.” -Marty Solomon

*Pause: Now I want to make sure you know (in case it’s not obvious) as we continue that I’m no biblical scholar, by any means. And I’m only taking pieces from these podcasts. I feel like you are going to see the point I’m going to make. However, some of you may just need to go listen to the podcasts yourselves. Right here. And I encourage that so much! Marty gave a disclaimer that there is always a huge debate about which trees the authors in scriptures are talking about. He is teaching a lot of what he has learned from a guy named Noga Hareuveni. He is known as the leading expert in Biblical Botany.

Ok, unpause.

Now I’m going to lay a passage before you that Noga Hareuveni says has both of these trees in it.

Jeremiah 17

5“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns alway from the Lord. 6He is like a shrub(Ar’ar bush) in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

7”Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8He is like a tree(Acacia tree) planted by the 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.

Marty says:

“Jeremiah is talking about two different people. One person trusts in man, trusts in the power and the strength of their own flesh. They don’t trust in the Lord, they turn away from the Lord, and they trust in what they are able to do and produce. The other person trusts in the Lord, not in what they can do and produce. And Jeremiah connects them to two trees. And I think the connection is brilliant. The first one will be like an Ar’ar bush, the one who trusts in man. That person looks good on the outside and appears like he has it all together. I don’t know if you ever look around and think, ‘I’m trying to walk the path of God well and it seems like everybody who mocks the path of God seems to have it all together.’ Jeremiah says the one who trusts in flesh, he’s like an Ar’ar bush. He looks amazing on the outside, but inside he’s just full of death and toxic emptiness. Now, however, the one who trusts in the Lord is like an Acacia tree. The Acacia tree looks like it’s dead and yet deep in its bones (if trees had bones) it has everything it needs to be the ‘gift of the desert’. Now the Hebrew here when it says, ‘it’s leaves never fail to be green’, the insinuation here is it perseveres. Not that it’s always constantly green, but it never fails to be green. It will always be green when it’s supposed to be green.”

This past week, I had the opportunity to go and video my grandpa’s house he’s selling. My mom was 3 years old when they moved into this house. It’s a treasure to my family. When my parents divorced when I was 5, my two brothers and I would switch houses every week. We would be at my Dad’s house one week and my Mom’s house the next. However, my grandparents would pick us up after school and we would go to their house at least a few times almost every week, no matter whose house we were at. We spent lots of summer days there when we weren’t with a baby sitter. As I was walking around filming this now empty house, it was as if I was seeing scenes from my life come into view.

My grandparents bedroom: I remember sitting in a chair, while my grandmother was bedridden from a fall, asking her what her name meant and where it came from. Ozell. I had to look it up for her. It means “Divine Strength”. Then we talked about how one of her parents wanted to name her “Marie” so she decided to give my Mom that as her middle name—which is also where my middle name came from.

My grandpa’s office: He was always back there fiddling with something or reading—sometimes books, mostly his Bible. He found these cookies in a magazine one time, and gave me the recipe and said he wanted me to make them for him. So I did. Turtle Thumbprint Cookies. They were a pain in the tail to make, but I would make them for him every Christmas and eventually he would start to expect them on his birthday. They have affectionally now been renamed “Pawpaw’s Cookies”. I would give them to him and he would immediately take them back to his office so no one else could get any. A couple weeks ago, we celebrated his 90th birthday in the mountains with a fishing trip and all our family was there. I made him the cookies and for the first time, he shared. HA!

Mawmaw’s room: That’s what I’ve called it for years. If she were here she would probably correct me and call it the “chillen’s” (google translate: “children’s”) room. The old dollhouse she build her granddaughters was in the closet, complete with wallpaper, carpet and furniture. I remember sleeping in there when I was little. But the real reason I call it Mawmaw’s room was because that’s the room she passed away in. I’ll never forget that moment, nor the moment afterwards when I stood there holding her hand, thanking God over and over for her and the gift of her life.

The dining room: There were countless family dinners and games played around that table. Including the fish frys, with homemade French fries and hush puppies. Oh, and we can’t forget the one time we were all finished with our main meal and enjoying dessert when my grandmother suddenly remembered she had also made green beans she forgot to put out. She made my grandpa walk around to every person and ask them if they wanted some green beans. Which he did with great humility and humor, because no one wanted green beans with their dessert.

The living room: Gosh, which story do I even tell. One story that cracks me up was later in their life. My grandpa had called me and said they were in need of someone to go get them some food. So I brought them some food and as we were sitting there, my grandpa starts telling this story about how at night there were “goons” in the kitchen, making racket and messing things up. My grandma looked at him and busted out laughing saying, “goons!?!!” “Yea, there’s goons in the kitchen”, he said. And they just laughed forever about that, because they both knew it was really him getting snacks in the middle of the night.

The Kitchen: I had this doll that was kind of similar to an American girl doll. One summer in the kitchen my grandma and I made clothes for her. Specifically a cowgirl outfit. We’d be here forever if we talked about the food and the canning and all the yumminess that came from the kitchen. Never forgetting the mac ‘n cheese for the “chillen” of course.

The yard: Again, the list could go on forever. I remember my brother Jeremy having a friend come with us at times and he would say, “I love coming to your grandparents. They have good food inside and outside.” Which was true with all the blueberries and blackberries and muscadines. Then there was the playground my grandmother built us. The amazing magnolia tree that all my siblings and cousins climbed except me, because you know… snakes. The fishing adventures at their lake. Pawpaw’s honey bees. Being chased with a “switch” when we were in trouble. The go-cart escapades. Helping in the garden. Taking a walk around the “horse shoe”. (Which was another road we would walk, on the way to gas station for slush-puppies.) The hundreds of games we played on the front lawn. Taking pictures in front of the gorgeous flowers. Sitting on the front porch, sometimes talking, sometimes waving to the neighbors, sometimes just being quiet and looking at the stars.

After I finished filming I took some time to just drive around for a bit and let myself grieve. And I still don’t think I’m quite done. But in the process of sitting with the Lord thanking Him for the gift of my grandparents house, it made me think about how I’m living my life and how I want to live. They most definitely didn’t live theirs on a screen. First of all, there weren’t any really. Those were still the “rotary” phone days in their house. Which I loved that phone. We may have watched a little TV after breakfast or lunch but my grandparents wanted us to do stuff. Especially outside. And most of the time, they did it with us. Most of the time, it was all just for fun. Yes, we would can the fruits and veggies, but not to see how much we could produce. It was always seen as a blessing to what God provided.

I think the life I lived with my grandparents on that property was my own “gift of the desert”. Still, the greatest lesson my grandpa teaches and lives is to “Trust the Lord in all things.” And he’s still got all the stories to prove why. Like a tree that is always green when it’s supposed to be. But I think the gift and lesson for me is also to show up for my life. To really lean into the daily tasks and also do things in a way just because I am trusting the Lord. Not because I’m trying to produce something.

I think trusting the Lord looks like doing things just because it’s fun. Doing things just because as the people of God we know that our God tells us over and over that we don’t have to worry or fear. He provides us countless stories of how He shows up, how He provides, how He protects. I think He isn’t impressed with our efficiency. Our job is just to join Him in the day to day, tuning our ears to hear His voice, and partnering with Him as He brings His Kingdom of Shalom into existence. Trusting the Lord and not in man looks like laying down the grinding to produce, the hustle to keep up with the status quo, and continuously building a life but never living one. Never stopping the production cycle of our brains to lean in and remember what it was like to go fishing just for fun on a Tuesday.

At our fishing trip for my grandpas 90th birthday, he was out there fishing and I came over and asked him if he was catching anything. He said, “Nope, I’m just having fun!”

But I also think trusting the Lord looks like showing up for your life on the days when it’s hard. When it’s been a while since you’ve felt the Presence of God, or disappointment and grief have suddenly become your closest companions. When you feel dead and it feels like you haven’t had water in a decade. But don’t mishear me, I don’t define “showing up” as in “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”. I mean show up before the Lord. Be honest, yell, cry, just be present before Him and then lean on His strength for the rest. And when His Spirit shows up and gives you joy don’t shrink back from it just because you’re more comfortable in your pain. Don’t refuse His peace because you’re afraid others will think you’re “healed and good” now. Receive it all… fully. It’s the way out. I heard a quote the other day: “Hope is not the way we cope. It is the way we conquer.” (Salome Agbaroji) Don’t shrink back from the fruit the Holy Spirit is growing in you. Feast on it and let it heal you. Trust the Lord in it all. That would be like an Acacia tree refusing to the drink the water when it’s provided and choosing to remain dormant instead.

I don’t want to be an Ar’re bush. I don’t want to spend my life pushing harder, saving more, building bigger. I don’t want to spend my life on a screen, listening to all the voices telling me how I’m supposed to be blooming just because all the other trees are, when the Lord has His own timing with things. I want more of the lessons the trees teach me. The quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit telling me to stop and watch and when to let go. I want to live my life as a Daughter who trusts her Father because He said she could. Not as an orphan digging and scrounging for my next meal. I want to live my life not build one.

So your encouragement for the week:

Show up for your life. Freedom comes in the letting go when God says to let go. Trust the Lord not yourself. Count the blessings the Lord gives and not your mental production line. Drink the living water and eat the fruit when the Holy Spirit gives it. Do something for the sole purpose of having fun simply as a reminder that you are a child of the King of Kings and He’s got you. And when you forget, slow down and stare at the Trees and Trust.