Back in early April, my good friend Stevy gave me a clipping from her flowering crabapple tree. It’s an absolutely beautiful tree that is covered in pretty pink blooms each spring. She uses that tree for her photography, but also as a place of rest where she can read her bible, and journal, and just find peace there. She wanted to share that with me. So, when a shoot started coming up from the roots, she tried to dig it up and give it to me. The problem was the shoot was attached to the main root system of the tree so it couldn’t be dug up. She just ended up having to chop it off and gave me a random branch with no roots attached and she stuck it in a pot of dirt. We laughed and said there was no way it was going to grow but I was going to take it home anyway. I said “Well you never know. I’ll just pray over it. If God wants me to have it then it will grow.” I said that but not in faith. Sometimes we speak words, and they have no substance. I took my branch home and forgot about it. It sat neglected in the shallow pot of dirt by the edge of the house.
About a month later the weather was finally warming up enough that I was ready to weed out my garden and clean it up for the year. It’s a small circular garden on the front side of my house, and I wished I had a tree growing in the middle of it. I remembered the random tree branch and grabbed it out of the pot and stuck it into the ground. It had been left abandoned in that old pot for over a month. It had no life. It had no roots. It had no chance.
I stuck it in the ground and prayed over it. There it sat again, forgotten. I didn’t tend it, water it, or look at it.
This same spring, I also bought a pretty cherry tree and put it in the ground. It had a root system and lots of leaves, and it was doing great. I was super excited about the idea of fresh cherries growing outside our home. I put extra effort into the thing by digging it deep and watering it, and then I bought a fancy mulch base to put around it just to ensure it wouldn’t get choked out by weeds. It was getting plenty of water and sunshine and I just knew it was going to thrive where I planted it.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. Derick told me that the cherry tree wasn’t doing so well and that I needed to go look at it. All the leaves had turned brown, and it was looking rough. I went out to check on the rest of the garden. I was pulling up weeds and to my surprise the dead crabapple tree branch had leaves! There was new life and new growth!
“And all the trees will know that it is I, the Lord, who cuts the tall tree down and makes the short tree grow tall. It is I who makes the green tree wither and gives the dead tree new life. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said!””Ezekiel 17:24 NLT
We can plant, water, and try to grow things, but if God is not our source then all the things we try do are fruitless. He is the one who can make a tree blossom and flourish or wither up and die. You better believe that I prayed over my wilting cherry tree and I am going to wait and see what God has in store for it.
It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.1 Corinthians 3:7 NLT
We worry over little things that don’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of life. Yet those small things that we are worried about are the things that God cares about too. My words may not have been spoken in faith but were still heard by a loving Father who cares about me. He cares about my friend wanting to share her tree. He cares about the little things… but even more about the big things.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith? Matthew 6:26-30
God cares about my tree. He cares about my prayers and the words I speak – even if they aren’t spoken with great faith. He cares about me, and he cares about you. I pray that you are watered in the Word of God. Grow and flourish today, friend.