BEING LIKE A TREE
(Tuesday, October 17)
“…And he shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.” (Ps 1:3)
After Psalm 1 (“Blessed is the man…”) tells us what our focus should and should not be, if we are truly to be happy or “blessed,” it expands into these enticing promises of positive change. What kind of positive change do we experience, when daily we choose to “delight” in, and contemplate, not primarily the voices in our own heads but the law of the Lord?
We are promised growth, into emotional and spiritual stability, and into God’s kind of productivity and prosperity. When we plant ourselves “by the rivers of water,” which is God’s grace in the communion of the saints; when we stay close to Him and walk in His presence with patience, our “tree” that is the cross of our particular vocation, with its challenges and blessings, brings forth “fruit” in its own time, “in its season,” invigorated by the constant flow of divine energies. Our failures or slips do not topple or uproot us, when we consistently, day by day, continue to let ourselves be nourished, healed, and occasionally pruned by God’s gentle corrections.
Then the Psalm continues, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.” (Ps 1:4-5) That is a lonely path, to be *not* connected to the Source of Life, and to the one Source of righteous Judgment, Who has faith in our ability to bring fruit and to prosper, as we are meant to, in His light. Thank You, God, for all of it, and let me stay planted in You today, by Your grace.