A PRE-FRUIT TREE

This peach trees looks dead but it isn't. It's in a dormant stage preparing for the coming season to bear fruit, perhaps more than the branches can even hold. Notice the broken branches, how gnarled and dead it looks. Actually the branches are not broken, they've been pruned, cut off. Jesus revealed that every vine (or fruit tree) that bears fruit will be pruned at one time or another so that it can bear more fruit than it already has.

Be careful not to become discouraged when you find yourself in a dormant state, or after having been pruned. You could even feel cold, like these snow frosted trees. One characteristic of those times is that you may look and feel your worst. But if you don't go through the process, you will never truly 'look your best'!

The theme of my blog is 'Waking Up'. That is exactly what fruit trees start doing just about this time of year. They can go from apparent barrenness to bearing maximum fruit in a very short time. Jeremiah had a very interesting and encouraging conversation with the Lord along these lines:

"Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree. Then the Lord said to me, "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word" (Jeremiah 1:11-12).

At first glance the exchange between the prophet and the Lord doesn't seem to make much sense, until you realize that the Hebrew word for 'almond' and the word translated 'ready to perform', are similar in sound and spelling in the Hebrew. God is using a play on words to say that just as the almond (shaaqeed) awakens first in the spring, flowering in January, so is the Lord 'awake' (shoqeed) alert, on the lookout, over His promised word to perform it.

Our faith can stay awake because He is always awake to watch over us and fulfill his word. Remember His promises and trust that He is watching over them to fulfill each one for those who believe.