Blossom on our Branches

If we are to hold fast to our roots, and blossom on our branches, what does that mean?!?!

For me, it means my roots of faith.  I have a STRONG heritage of women in my family (& men, but this is for me) who have gigantic faith.  My maternal grandfather's mother (affectionately known as Maw) had callouses on her knees from the hours she spent in prayer, kneeling beside her bed praying for each of her five children, their spouses, their children, and their grandchildren, etc.  Her Bible was always open beside her chair.  I remember as a small child listening to her pray as we would leave her small, cozy house in the mountains of West Virginia.  We gathered in a circle, holding hands, before leaving and she had the most sincere prayers for each person in the circle, lasting no less than 30 minutes usually.   My grandfather would always cut up during her prayer and usually get in trouble, but that is a side note. 

I do not remember my life without God in it.  I accepted Christ, got saved, asked Jesus into my heart...whatever you want to call it at a very young age, like 4.  I was baptized at First Baptist Atlanta in 3rd grade and have always followed God.  Church was not an option at my house, not because I was required to go, but because I wanted to go.

However, things have happened in my life to cause me to doubt God.  I have gotten through hard stuff (like the loss of a child) and never had doubts.  I have gone through seemingly less horrific situations which have caused doubts to arise.  The doubts have caused me to set God aside and just live how I want to sometimes.  The doubts have nearly destroyed who I am.  Even though I know beyond a shadow of a doubt who God is and who I am in Christ, I lose sight of those things, as I nearly drowned in my sea of self-pity and discontentment.

 

Thank God for strong roots and that they are grounded in His love, which is never ending.  While we were yet sinners, Christ came to earth as a baby, grew into a man and died for us (Rom 5:8) so we can have eternal life with God by believing Him. (John 3:16)

 

BLOSSOM

Blossom on our branches?  So if we have roots, something has to grow out of them.  What grows comes from the life choices we make.  We can make ugly sticks grow out or beautiful flowers.  What determines that?  Our heart has a huge role in that...our hearts are born with evil intentions and God  comes in to make it beautiful.  When He comes, He gives us a new heart/self which has been created in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness of truth (Ephesians 4).

 

He makes all things beautiful in His time...Ecclesiates 3:11

 

Our prayer is to "Create in me a clean heart, O God." (Ps 51--read it all!!)

 

How do we get a beautiful heart?

In December, I danced the role of the Grinch in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and since my heart was 2 sizes too small, I (the Grinch) got a new heart at the end.  To me, this was the end all to the story.  We have to realize that WE CANNOT do anything on our own merit.  God has already done it ALL in Christ on the cross.  He did all that before we did a thing, like even be born.  The beauty inside comes from the love of God.  When we open our hearts to receive God's tremendous love for us, we are beautiful.  God sees us that way, even if we don't see ourselves that way.  We are perfect to Him, in Christ.  Without Christ, we are sinful and ugly.  Jesus truly makes us beautiful and lovely.

This sounds like "religious" talk, but I assure you it is not.  The love God showed us by sending His Son to die on a cross just so we can be in His presence should only invoke worship and love from us.  This love from our Father is beyond anything we can imagine and is all we need to be complete and whole.  Our wholeness is because of His holiness and that He has taken us for His own. 

 

That should be and is inspiration for us to bloom on our branches and be ALL we were created to be.  That is not to say that everything in our lives will be beautiful, but we don't appreciate the beauty with out the ugliness.  That is beautiful lesson in life.