Trees {Creation Revealing the Glory of God}

I'm so glad you are here! Currently I am doing a series talking about some pretty amazing stuff God created and pointing to what it shows us about Him. I hope you like it! I'm kinda thinkin you will. ;)

Leaha Shaikh serves as a sports chaplain on staff with Athletes in Action at the University of South Florida.  She also has a passion to write.  Check out her blog LeahasPen.blogpsot.com 

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“In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” –Isaiah 61:3

"One day I awakened only to find an empty gap in my heart created by the broken places in my life.  So I took a walk along a path where the setting sun dips through the trees and dances on the grass, hoping to behold God’s glory. Something about that evening made me desperately long to feel his presence the way I felt the wind whipping through my tangled hair. But as I continued to walk, I watched the trees take a bow beneath the weight of the wind, and I realized that I am like a tree whose branches do not bend. So I breathed deeply, asking the Lord to fill me, not with the disappointments of my day, or with the dirt that collects in the emptinesss of my heart, but with the hope he handed me when he died on the cross. And as I breathed a little more deeply, I realized that dirt and dust could not settle where the wind constantly blows, and where the wind blows, branches bend.  So the setting sun seemed to tell me that I had a choice to make: should I allow my roots to remain buried in the dust with parts of me unyielding to his presence? Or should I plant my heart in places where the soil seems rich and the wind beckons me to bend as it blows?

Watching the sun set that evening was like watching his faithfulness unfold like a large blanket, spreading out the night, covering over me, inviting me to dream a waking dream, and to pray an inspired prayer.  So I sincerely prayed, asking the Lord to fill me with his presence.  And I picked up the pieces to close the gap in my heart, only to realize they were little fragments of faith, coming together to form a more beautiful me. For I am more than just His creation, I am His beloved, His daughter. What was once my brokenness has now become His, for He has made me whole. 

Then the leaves clapped as the wind whipped through the night, begging for an ovation. For with the morning, I remembered He makes all things new. And as He ushered in His presence, just like He ushers in the light of a new day, I awakened only to find a new creation where an empty gap once remained.

Are you feeling the strain of living life with branches that refuse to bend?  
Do you find it difficult to yield when God’s presence invites you to respond to His movement?  Perhaps it is time to take a walk and behold his Glory in ways have never experienced before?"

Check out the rest of the series

Sound; From Stars to Snowflakes
Blueberries from Blossoms 
Star-Breathing God
Solar Eclipse
Telomerase & the Carrier Protein
Star-Nosed Mole  
Rejection  
Deep Sea Creatures 
Hard-Wired for God
Glow Worms
Okapi
Divine Proportion  
Pruning