What happens when you shed your leaves? When all the dead stuff of yesterday and yesteryears come sloughing off, like leaves blown by the wind, winds that are mild, brisk, sometimes gusty, and, at times, violent. Sometimes what we find after the sloughing is what I found when I beheld trees in their nakedness. Knotted, gnarled branches refusing to unfurl, forever preserved in their stubbornness. Diseased branches covered by mold or lichen, now made brittle, fall to the ground because of the sheer weight of the parasite. Sometimes nestled deep within the tree is a nest, usually hidden from the public eye, couched within protective branches … and the nests remain, containing all the things that comprise them: twigs, hair, moss, grass, hay, dirt.
AND SO MY REFLECTION AND PRAYER . . .
Father, in the appropriate season, let us shed that which we do not need! Let not one dead or dying leaf hold on to us longer than it should. Let all parasites and affected branches fall! Let every nest we’ve created be exposed and disassembled and each piece, in your Grace, carried away by the wind of your Ruach… every ingredient used to create nests of pain, duplicity, deception, and unrepentance — let them be blown away. Let us release everyone we held in our nests, coddling pain and nursing resentment, harboring grudges.
Yes, naked and unashamed, like Adam and Eve were on the day You created them, and like some trees are that yield to the season… let us be as well—totally transparent!!
Yes, ABBA, let the winds blow: mild, strong, gusty, violent, whatever it takes until all dead leaves are shed, and we stand before You as Your oaks of righteousness, naked and unashamed …formed for the display of YOUR splendor.
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