This whole thing started one Sunday morning as I was
spending some extended time with God out on my deck. I re-visited a question I
have asked God for several years now. “Father, would you tell me a joke?”
Now, I know that sounds kind of weird, but it dawned on me
one day that he really loves to have conversation with me, and over the years
we have had some doozies. So the thought occurred to me to ask him to tell me a
joke.
I’ve never heard Him respond to my request until this one
Sunday morning. He said, “When you least expect it I will. After all, jokes
work best when they catch you by surprise.”
So, with some degree of expectation, I dropped the idea from
my mind and continued on in my time alone with him. It became a beautiful time
together as I was listening to a Pandora channel I set up that is mostly older,
classic contemporary Christian music. You know, 2nd Chapter of Acts,
Keith Green, Phil Keaggy. It was taking me back to a time when my heart was fresh
from being re-born and it was so good.
In the midst of all this he said, “As you look out over your
back yard, tell me what you see.” I responded, “I see leaves, green ones
hanging on for life, and brown ones all over the yard.”
He said, “Every leaf that falls to the ground does so under
my watchful care. I am there in the midst of every circumstance relative to
that leaf falling. I operate the same way in every circumstance of your life. I
am gleefully at work, causing all these things to work together for your good
and my glory.”
About 20-30 minutes later, I was listening as The Coloring
Song by Petra came on Pandora and there was a sense in which I felt like I was
about to get surprised. I thought maybe I would hear the joke. Out of the blue
I happened to look up and saw a single brown leaf seem to appear out of nowhere
and drop slowly and majestically to the ground. One brown leaf. That was all. At
this exact moment the words of the song were, “Brown is the color of the autumn
leaves, when the winter comes to the barren leaves.”
At first I just started laughing. This was far too
coincidental to be a coincidence. I was so surprised and filled with joy that
the God who rules the universe would stop and take a moment to cause a single
leaf to fall and simultaneously engineer the “random” programming at Pandora to
play this one lyric at the exact same time.
Then there was a sense that maybe there was more to this. So
I went out into the yard and picked up the leaf. As I looked at it, I could see
that it seemed to represent a life. There was a central stem that had been
connected to the tree, and it ran straight up the middle of the leaf. Out of
this stem were branches, spreading out and covering the entire leaf.
God seemed
to say to me, “Your whole life is like this. From the root of your life goes a
worldwide impact. You speak to someone and they are encouraged. They move on
and the impact of your words flows through them to others. It can potentially
flow to the other side of the earth. But keep in mind that it flows from the
essence of who you are…my beloved. Your life is an occasion…rise to it.”
It was such a good reminder that I don’t have to plant a
great church, start a great ministry, or write a best-seller to have a huge
impact on the world. I just have to be me, truly me, the new me that He
created, and He will cause the impact that He desires.
So later that morning as I was looking at the leaf, it
dawned on me that the image I saw on the leaf was the same image as the tree
itself. The stem was like the tree’s trunk, with branches spreading out all
over. That leaf was an image bearer of the one who brought it into existence
and gave it life! In addition, as my wife pointed out, it was an oak leaf.
Just as Isaiah 61 says, we are his righteous oaks, bearing
his image in this world. What a wonderful way to be reminded of this by the one
who loves me so well.
I’m still waiting on the joke…
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