“When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.” Psalm 104:30.
The springtime have arrived adding a dramatic twist to the otherwise lifeless plants and landscapes. The branches of trees that were bared out during the deadly winter days are now bursting with lush green leaves ,buds and blooming flowers.A blast of color,beauty and hope.For a plant to survive winter, is very hard. First it have to leave behind its most beloved leaves one by one. Those leaves added fullness and beauty to the tree and helped in its survival.The cold temperatures slows down the growth of the tree and when the surrounding water freezes , the water that gives life to the plant becomes inaccessible .If the plant do not have well developed tactics for its survival it wont last the winter.We often see the lonely and grey backbone of a winter tree and wonder will it turn green and bloom again?But we know that after the winter there will be sunshine over the grey clouds, and the days become longer, and the trees will bloom and turn green, and we hope for it.
While I had the above thought in my mind God reminded me of the story of Naomi and Ruth. Naomi had a very beautiful family , but they went away from the promised land in search of bread during famine.In that foreign land she lost her husband and her two sons .She was left alone with the young wives of her sons in a land away from Bethlehem. She lost the hope for her future, she did not have a place to go and was old. There were no offspring’s in the family to retain the name and inheritance of her family.She understood the hand of God is against her in that foreign land and decided to return to Bethlehem. The word Naomi means pleasant,the book of Ruth picture’s her as a pious,loving and kind person.She prayed for the prosperous future of Orpah and Ruth(daughter-in -laws) and asked them to return to their own house, but Ruth clinged to her. While Naomi left Bethlehem her family could be portrayed as a lush blooming tree, but now she is returning to her home land without the slightest idea on how to redeem her family, we can visualize her as a lonely winter tree struggling for its survival.
Naomi never imagined that her family could be redeemed ,and that was the reason why she pleaded to her daughter-in-law’s to leave her, and find rest in their own house. But when Naomi returned to Bethlehem God have already made his master plan to redeem her family, according to the inheritance law of Moses. Ruth goes in the field of Boaz, a kinsman in the family of Naomi’s husband . He was kind to her and acknowledges his duty of redemption. Boaz marries Ruth, and she bare a son and according to the law of redemption that child is the successor of the family of Naomi.
“And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age:”Ruth4:14,15
From a place of no hope Naomi became a grand mother and also their family became a part of the family tree of Jesus Christ. How amazing is the the master plan of God.When our life settles on places we never imagined,do not loose your focus. Look with a steadfast hope to Jesus Christ, our kinsman and redeemer who can work miracles in our desolate situations and turn the freezing winter that stiffens our flourishing into a beautiful spring time of his blessing.
A believers journey is not an endless season of spring, nor never ending winter.The word of God says that there will be tribulation in the life of a believer.
John 16:33”These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”.
If we are facing a question mark period with respect to our survival to reach another level in our spiritual and material being, then we ought to remember the rule given to nature by God , a winter is followed by a spring. When we see the lonely trees without their blanket of leaves in a barren land,lets imagine the beauty of that tree in the forthcoming spring.Wait upon the Lord he will provide you with a season of renewal.May God bless you.
In Christ Jesus,
SmithaThomas
