Lent 2023 day 39

 

The Spirit of God, the Master, is on me because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. God sent me to announce the year of his grace— a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies— and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by God to display his glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new.  (Isaiah 61 Message)  

A couple of weeks ago the toddlers in church creche planted cress seeds because our topic was God Makes Me Grow. When you are three you dont really have the patience to wait for things to grow. But cress seeds sprout within a few days and dont even need soil so its a perfect illustration for little people.  But it occurred to me a while later that oak trees take a very very long time to grow.  Ive planted a few acorns in my time.  It takes a good year for them to sprout and push a stem a few inches above ground level.  After about 3years it is a meter tall but is susceptible to being crowded out by other plants and at this stage many die. ' Fast growing' oaks may be mature after 30-35 years.  Slower growing species can take up to 40 years to mature.  But once they are fully grown they will be up to 80ft high and possibly 60-70ft wide.  Impressive.  They dont start producing acorns until they are between 20 and 35 years old.  They can then live for hundreds of years- the oldest even up to 1,000 years !!!  Incredible.

So the prisoners, the mourners, the poor and heartbroken that Jesus has come for are the ones who are destined to become oaks.  But becoming an oak is a long long process. It takes decades to become an oak of righteousness. It takes good soil, enough water, the right environment and lots of time. As we get older in our faith and more rooted and grounded in God's love we need to be nurturing the seedlings and the saplings in our midst.  With bucket-loads of patience.  Because that is what others lavished on us over the years.  Lets not try to hurry ourselves or others through the processes God allows.  If we take our time and are kind and longsuffering maybe after 20 or 30 years we will have fruit to show.  And after a few more decades people will come to sit in the shade of our wisdom.