On Being Green

We hear a lot today about being “green,” that is, being aware and exercising care of our environment. In a different sense of the term, God wants us to be green! He says so in His Word; in fact, it’s a promise found in Psalm 92:12-14. ”The godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.” (NLT) This is a great encouragement to me! We’re not “old” yet—you and I—but secretly we sometimes think about aging a bit, don’t we? One of my life’s ambitions is to be a beautiful old lady. Really, I’m serious! I don’t want to be sour, and bitter about life’s disappointments, and hard to get along with. I want to be sweet and loving and generous and kind and faithful to God and fruitful. It is mostly true that as we get older, we only get more like ourselves. So maybe I should practice now?

But let me tell you about my tree. Up until a few years ago, I lived in a home where there was a huge old elm in the back yard. It finally succumbed to storms and disease, but before then it was a marvelous creation of God, formed over a period of fifty years or more. I never took it for granted, but appreciated that it sheltered fully half of my house from the hot afternoon sun. Its great branches also welcomed birds of many kinds and squirrels. It was a wonderful old tree and I mourned its removal, but it caused me to think about the “trees of the Lord” as Christians are called. (See Isaiah 61:3)

Here is something I’ve learned about trees: As the sun warms the leaves, the water inside them is turned to vapor and begins to escape through the pores on the underside of the blade. This helps cool the leaf, and it’s the reason we enjoy sitting in the deep cooling shade of a big tree. But there is another reason that this transpiration, or breathing out, is so important. It keeps water flowing up from the roots. Water forms a continuous column as it flows through the roots, up the stem, and into the leaves. The molecules of water in this column are actually sticking to one another so that as molecules are lost at the top of the column through evaporation, the entire column of water is pulled upward. This pulling force is strong enough to draw water to the tops of the tallest tress. One scientist said, “The force which causes sap to rise in the plant is, to a great extent, pull from above.”

So then this life that is flowing through us as Christians is not something we are doing for ourselves. It is the very life of God. The vital force which causes this surge of life is the pull from above! Then, just as evaporation forces new life through the trees, so the God-life that we pour out to others causes His presence to flow more freely through us!

About 95% of the water and sap that rise in the tree evaporates; only about 2% dissolves plant food in the leaves and returns down the tree for storage. This may be a good percentage for us to keep in mind. Probably 95% of what we get from God is for others, and a much smaller portion should suffice for ourselves! So then, when the Spirit enlightens a portion of the Word to me or gives me an insight into life and living, I should assume there will be a way to share it with another. Perhaps I can even pray, “Lord, give me a way today to share what You’ve given me. Help me tell this to someone, or demonstrate it, or just exude it from my life without even knowing it. I want to it to be ‘breathed out’ so that more of your Spirit can rise up in me!”

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture quotation taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com