Leaves that do not fade - Rev. Manish Lal

I love the story of Pablo Casals, the world-famous cellist, who even at the advanced age of 93 still practiced the cello four hours each day. A startled reporter heard that information and asked Casals why he still worked so diligently at his age. With a wink, the expert said, “Because I think I’m making some progress.” Are we making any progress in our walk with God? Are we making any progress in our journey of faith with Jesus Christ? Are we growing into the kind of people whom almighty God wants us to be?

Psalm 1 describes two possible paths to take in life. ‘Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night’ (Ps.1:1-2). One is the road of blessing and righteousness. The other is the road of wickedness. The psalmist warned us to be very careful of this road of wickedness because as you travel it you are listening to the wrong voices. You can miss the road God wants you to walk down.

That is the road of righteousness – the road of blessing. The psalmist said that those who walk down the path that God wants us to take become like trees and they blossom. ‘He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers’ (Ps 1:3). I would like to look at three characteristics of the kind of tree that God wants to grow in each of us. Take a little spiritual inventory and see if you’re blossoming and blooming as God would have you, and if you’re making progress in your walk with God.

It Has Deep Roots The first characteristic of the tree that God wants to grow in our lives is that it has deep roots. Many scholars have suggested that the tree the Psalmist had in mind in Psalm 1 was a cedar tree. The cedar was planted in the warm, arid climate of Palestine and Lebanon. To grow there it needs deep roots – tenacious roots that go down through the sand, through the limestone, through the shallow soil all the way down into subterranean streams way below the surface.

The roots wrap themselves around the boulders and take in the sustenance of the streams so that when the wind blows the cedar tree stands tall to the honor and the glory of God. Do you have deep roots? During my theological training, I asked one of my professors “Why is it that you study so much and so late into the night and early into the morning.” He just laughed and said, “Manish, I want my students drinking from a running brook, not a stagnant pond.” Are you a running brook? The kind of running brook that God can use to well up eternal life into you? The first characteristic of the kind of trees God wants to plant in us is that they have deep, abiding, nourishing roots.

It Bears Great Fruit The second characteristic of the tree God wants to grow in us is it bears great fruit. Is your life bearing fruit? Galatians 5 lists nine signs of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As I list them, ask yourself, ‘Are these nine kinds of fruit growing on the tree of my life?’ The nine are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Bearing fruit is not something we do; it is a gift from God. It comes from being grafted into the vine of Jesus Christ.

No human being can humanly manufacture these qualities. We can produce happiness, but not joy. Only God growing His own life within us can produce the blessed life about which the Psalmist wrote. Leaves that do not fade The third characteristic of the tree that God wants to grow in us is that it has leaves that do not wither. I’ve been reading about the wonderful process known as photosynthesis. The leaves on the tree are the major organs of this process. There are chloroplasts located in those leaves.

When the leaves turn upward toward the sun, those little chloroplasts with chlorophyll inside take all the photons out of the sun and by a miraculous process convert them into glucose that provides energy for the tree. And as long as those leaves are upright toward the sun the miracle of photosynthesis happens. It’s quite a wonder. You may have read that when salt clogs the tree, it gets soggy and the leaves, instead of turning upward toward the sun, turn inward toward themselves. God wants us to put our leaves toward the Son. Jesus comes to us, and by a miracle of spiritual photosynthesis, God’s son comes into us – it is a miraculous process that we can’t even begin to understand. And by this process that we can’t understand, God converts enough of this spiritual energy for us to reach out with love and reconciliation into this world of ours. Revelation 22.1-2: The leaves of the tree aren’t for us, they are for the healing of the nations. Perhaps God is calling us to change the landscape of our environment.