Words of Worth

Like a Tree Firmly Planted

July 10, 2014

Many of you have been watching the pictures I have been posting on Facebook during my three week stay in Kandern, Germany.  You have taken the time to “like” and in some cases “comment” on the photos that have included jaunts to the Alsace, Switzerland, and Germany.  You have witnessed what Tom, Tammy, and Jordan Allen, Dianne Alexander, and Sheryl Vasso have seen and eaten!  You haven’t seen us in the classroom much, but truly we all have been teaching and/or studying during these weeks.  We are grateful to you for sharing in our joy and now our journey has come to an end. However, over the next five weeks, we each are going to share some of the “light” that God has given to us during our time in the Black Forest.

Today, I will start with,

“Like a Tree Firmly Planted”

Have you ever stared at something for days without realizing what it is? It’s right in front of your eyes and yet you’re not really seeing the object of your gaze?

During the first week of teaching in Kandern, I would walk to the end of my drive way to wait for Tammy and Tom to pick me up for work.  Each morning, as I waited, I would stare at this tree directly across the road, until truly, after a week of looking at it, I realized just what it was.

6.26.14 Tree in Kandern by stream

This tree is so intentionally planted by the stream behind it, with a bamboo encasement around its trunk and four beams of wood supporting the entire tree so that it will grow straight, its roots will grow deep, and its fruit will grow abundantly! And there I had a visual, right in front of my eyes for one week, of Psalm 1! This tree was a picture of exactly how God plants the godly man.

 Psalm 1 

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night
.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.

 The Psalm, a comparison and contrast of the ungodly and godly man, tells us in verse 3 that the godly man will be firmly planted by streams of water.  It is an intentional planting and not a haphazard or random placing of a tree by water.

We’ve had some severe storms at night during my stay in the Black Forest. After each storm I’d run to my window to check if the tree was still standing. And it was! Standing firm and straight, unlike the ungodly man who is like chaff, fruitless and useless, that is driven away!

What a blessing to have roots that go deep, to have leaves that never wither, to bring forth fruit in due season, and to drink from streams of  Christ’s fullness!