For those diehard readers blog visitors, you may notice that I’ve changed the theme. Yes, I know that I’m not branching out to things terribly original, but instead am using the new WordPress “Spring” theme. Well… I like it. I like the green, the grass, but there’s more.
Obviously. Or I wouldn’t feel the need to blog about it… since I haven’t blogged in months on end anyway.
Bobby and I just returned from our very first camping trip. It was divine to be able to get away and spend time just doing nothing. We had hours on end to read, to pray, to talk about and to God, to listen to Him. We discussed Francis Chan’s book “Crazy Love” that we’ve been reading in our Connect Group.
I love that my husband appreciates different shades of green in nature as much as I do. I love that we spent inordinate amounts of time discussing and counting and comparing the different greens of the trees and grasses, wondering what they would feel like to touch. He knows the exact shade of grass that makes me want to be barefoot. I know the exact bright green of trees that he loves. Green is refreshing in nature, new life, spring and all that is symbolized there.
Green firewood = bad. Not so great for campfires.
But then I got to thinking about green wood. How it bends but doesn’t break. It’s pliable. It is not easily destroyed by pressure or fire. It’s alive. Life and water flow through it to the leaves and it grows. When wood isn’t green, sure, it is harder and some may say stronger. But it becomes more brittle, easier to burn, and it doesn’t produce leaves. Hardening happens though. A whole tree doesn’t stay green. The parts that are green are the new parts – the parts that have been pruned, cut back.
My prayer today is that God keeps me green. I want to be pliable and usable in His hands. It’s the newness, the greenness of us that produces life, that God can use, not when we’ve become hardwood and aged. The tough stuff is that it means He is going to have to keep pruning me, shaping me, cutting out the hardened crap to keep me producing for Him.
How spiritually “green” are you? Are you willing to let God prune you and cut out the stuff He needs to so that you can be green for Him? Pray that God shows you what parts aren’t green anymore; then pray that He cuts them off so that new can grow.
