Tree
WORD PICTURE: Tree
Scriptural Reference: Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
1. Have someone(s) read the scriptures from various translations.
2. Showing a picture or model of a tree, read the following story:
The Trouble Tree
by Author Unknown
The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farm house had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire had caused him to miss an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pick-up truck refused to start.
As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. When we arrived he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked to the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles; he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed by the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, they don't belong in the house with my wife and children. So, I just hang them on the tree when I come home in the evening and then I just pick them up again in the morning."
"Funny thing, though," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there ain't nearly as many as I remembered hanging there the night before."
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
I have recently been struggling with the death of a friend’s friend, for whom we had been fervently praying. Karen had come to the Lord through this ordeal and was totally believing Him for a healing, but then, she died. She had gone through eight months of pain and suffering, and she was only 42 years old.
My friend and others had been confessing the Truth over her, especially the Scriptures that say He heals ALL our diseases. He died for all the bad things: sorrow, pain, disease, grief of any kind. Still they exist in this world. It was, we felt, our authority under Jesus Christ, to speak life and hope into the situation, believing it was not too hard for God to heal her completely.
And it wasn’t, we know. But the fact is, she died. She just plain died. According to her husband, also a new believer, she died with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen on her face, and her skin was radiant -- completely free of the rosacea that had covered her body. But she was not physically healed. God did not heal her cancer, or at least, that’s how it appears to us.
The troubles that I have to hang on the tree are twofold. First, what do I do with the fact that it appears God has broken His promise? And second, how do we rightly divide the Word in the future with people like Karen’s husband Mike? Here’s what I am hearing in my prayer closet:
Job 13:15a -- Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.
John 20:29b -- “ Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Daniel 3:17-18 -- “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
Proverbs 3:5-6 -- Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight [or, will direct your paths].
Hebrews 11:13 -- All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.
John 13:7 -- He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
So -- I am hanging my troubles (disappointment and incomprehension) related to Karen’s death on the Trouble Tree. I am learning to wait on the Lord and to be okay with not understanding. His ways are not my ways, but I know Him. He always has the Greatest Purposes in mind -- things I don’t even know about. So I am making the decision to trust Him like Job, who, despite the circumstances, stuck to his point that when everything was known it would not be to God’s dishonor, but to His honor.
I invite you to share about any troubles YOU need to hang on that Trouble Tree.
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, January 2008