Stumps

Good morning,

My father was not a great landscaper.  Basically, when he had our home built, there was no money for fancy foliage.  I was a toddler then.  I remember when the hedge of boxwoods was planted in the large, long planter in front of the house, years later.  The most maintenance work that was done in those days was to trim them and mow the grass.   My husband on the other hand, makes the yard work a creation of art.  At our first home, he planted crepe myrtle trees.  Then, in January, usually, he pruned them down to stumps.  I came home one day to find that he had done this, and was horrified! He had killed our lovely trees!

But, no.  Out of those seemingly brutalized and dead-appearing stumps came shoots, and then branches, and then, unbelievably, gorgeous flowers a few months later.  New life came from the seemingly dead.

11 

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2 

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and of might,

    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

Isaiah 11:1-2

Wouldn't you have expected Jesus to be born from a perfect family tree?  A tree with no imperfections?  Yet, the Bible says he sprang forth a Branch from the stump of Jesse's family, a family whose pedigree was hardly sterling.  There was no silver spoon in David's mouth.  He was the youngest, almost forgotten son.  NO ONE would have predicted that the Life who was the Light of Men would spring from David's roots.

Yet, this is what God does - - - He takes the forgotten, the small, the seemingly insignificant, the hopeless - - - and He regenerates, redeems, restores.

Until we met God, our spirits were like that stump.  The Bible declares that we were "dead in our sins" (Ephesians 2:1).  Although created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) there was no hope for us to be restored to God, regardless of our schemes, plans, promises, sacrifices...no hope.  What did God do?  He brought life to the stumps of our lives, through His Son. He irrevocably saved us, just as centuries earlier He grabbed hold of that young shepherd boy, David.  Covering him with His Spirit, He transformed that boy into a mighty king, making him into a man who pursued God with his whole heart.  He anointed that boy the physical ancestor of His only begotten Son, our Savior.

Beyond the miracle of our salvation, through faith in Jesus, we often find stumps in our Christian walks. They are not always resplendent ones.  Most of us have areas we consider dead.  They may be a relationship, a project, a career, a hopeless situation.  We are confronted with what look like lifeless stumps.

Oh Believer!  God is there!  His life is in you, so that your stumps may soon live again.  There is resurrection power through Him, and He is in you.  Seek Him this Advent season and ask Him to reveal Himself to you through those stumps in your life.  Fix your eyes on Him.  Ask Him to show Himself mighty through your challenges and even "failures".  Ask Him to show you glorious, new shoots as you sink your roots deeper and deeper into Him.

Father, we give you our stumps, asking that You reveal Your glory to us through them today.  Even if we see no new growth yet, help us to trust in You, that You have a purpose for every one of them and that Your Spirit within each of us, Your children, is quietly at work.  Faith: the evidence of things unseen.  Please grow our faith in You today, Lord, as we wait this Advent season.   In Jesus' name, amen.