Today is day 15 of the #iheartBible challenge that I’m hosting. If you have joined up, hooray! I’m glad you’re here. If you want to join up, then awesomesauce! Check out the challenge post for details and join in on the linky so we can all read one another’s posts during the challenge. I love Jesus and blogging, so I’m glad to see people joining in. We’d love to have you join, too. It’s never too late!
Today’s verse is Job 14.9. Read it below in its context (Why do I care about context?):
7 “For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.”
This verse makes me think of my father. We used to have deep conversations; aside from my husband, I’ve had the deepest conversations with Dad. Once, he brought this verse into a conversation we were having. It’s rather inspiring to think about. I think that’s where my obsession with trees as a metaphor took off. Thanks, Dad. 🙂
Today, I learned that a person I care about is struggling with hope. I feel like this verse is relevant to this person’s life. Even at my darkest moments, I feel like I still have hope–dreams and a light, however dim, at the end of the tunnel. But those times are still tough. So to think about what this person is going through breaks. my. heart.
This verse points out that, even if a tree seems dead, it can put out new branches–baby branches that seem like a young plant. “Young plant” sounds like a fresh start to me. Maybe sort of like a rebirth?
What I specifically enjoy about this voice is that the tree being described didn’t actually have any water. It didn’t drink any water. It just had a sense that there was water coming.
Water is coming.
This is like permission. You have permission to put out a new branch because everything it needs to live will be provided.
Have hope.
Love,
