When the good has been cut off, there can still be good.
This is a truth for so many aspects of our lives! It can be in the big things like when
life seems dead or when depression is overruling or when grief is reining, your marriage has been dry for years or a ruined friendship that can never be repaired...or it can be in the small things like when you're at your wit's end fighting with your kids to finish their school work or your house has been a disaster forever or that project you didn't finish is gathering dust...or maybe your coffee is ALWAYS cold!
I've been reflecting a bit on the first passage we talk about for our Jesse Tree on December 1st (from Isaiah 11), "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit." Every December, for 3 years now, we take the 25 days leading up to Christmas to "do" our Jesse Tree. Each day we learn and reflect on a part of the genealogy of Christ & day 1 is (you guessed it!) Jesse!
In this verse it's saying that out of the terrible cut-off nothing family of Jesse...with nothing special, undeserving, from somewhere no one would expect...would come a shoot! New life! Not only life, but the family that God would eventually entrust with His only Son in the form of a tiny baby.
Oh, how God can take the things in our life that are baren and wrecked...and turn them around. Surely this passage was phophetic for the coming of the messiah, but it is still a testiment to God's goodness and his ability to give new life where life has been cut off. That isn't changed. When we are feeling hopeless or lost or tired, we can remember that God is able to bring us back to a refreshing. We can remember that He often has a plan that no one expects! (I think He loves giving surprises!)
Your coffee may not magically reheat, but you may make use of your microwave or muster up the energy to brew a new cup or, better yet, start drinking smoothies in the morning!
(Feel me?)
You may feel like a failure. You may think your struggle is unworthy. You may feel like giving up, but God has the ability to give you the strength to be where you are and the ability to take your struggle and bring out goodness. I pray that we'll lean on Him and start to see the shoots start to grow in the "stumpy" parts of life very soon!
Want to see more about how we do our Jesse Tree? Click
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