Make like a tree...

Genesis 12:1-3

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

This time of year is one of my favorites. I love when the mornings are crisp and the smell outside is fresh. The leaves are changing color and everything is just so beautiful. I try not to focus on the fact that after this beautiful season of color the trees will be barren, the grass will turn brown and I will have to look harder to find beauty in the area around me. Not very long ago I began to wonder why the leaves change colors and why they fall off. They are so pretty when they are on the trees and such a hassle to have to rake and clean up when they fall off.

After a little research I found out that the reason the leaves fall off the tree is so the tree can protect itself. When the nights get longer the trees start to secrete chemicals that cause the leaves to change color and then to ultimately separate from the trees. The trees do this to conserve energy and protect themselves from damage during the winter. The leaves that fall off the tree end up becoming a mulch for the tree and help to further protect its roots as well. This process helps the tree to thrive in the next season when the leaves begin to grow again. If the tree didn't lose the leaves it would be weak and not as lacking the next year.

When I was reading this it made me think of people and relationships. There are seasons in our lives where we have to begin to step away from things, whether it is people or activities, so that we can protect ourselves and do what God wants us to. We see an example of this in Genesis chapter 12 when God told Abraham to go and leave his native land. He told him to leave his father's family and go to the land God would show him. God told him that He would make Abram into a great nation and that He would bless him there. When I was younger it seemed harsh to me that God would make Abraham leave his family and go away. Family is one of the most important relationships we can have and for God to ask Abraham to get up and leave them all behind would be so difficult, but it is precisely what Abraham had to do to get to where God wanted him.

I have read this passage many times and one day something stood out to me that I had never seen before. In chapter 11 and verse 31 of Genesis it said that Terah (Abraham's father) took his son and their family and moved away from Ur. Then it says that he was headed for the land of Canaan but that he stopped in Haran and settled there. It does not tell us that God told Terah to go to Canaan and that Terah disobeyed by settling in Haran, but it did make me wonder. I wondered if Terah was supposed to keep on going and take his family with him, but instead he stopped short of the promise that God had for him. I wonder if this is why God told Abraham and he had to leave his fathers household. God may have known that Terah stopped short of the blessing, and Abraham needed to get out away from his family so that he wouldn't follow in his fathers footsteps and stop short as well. God may have know that in order for him to continue on in the plan of God and be the man through whom the earth was going to be blessed, he had to let go and then go. Abraham had a season where he had to “shed his leaves”and leave his family, possibly to protect him from discouragement or even just from a bad example.

We may have seasons like that as well. Times where we have to give up certain relationships for a time so that we can pursue something that God has put in our hearts. Maybe we need to shed some relationships because they are toxic to us. There may be people in our lives that will suck the life right out of us, just like the leaves will suck the life from the tree if they do not fall off for the winter. Sometimes we allow ourselves to feel guilty if we start to remove ourselves from those friendships because the person “needs” us. We think that we can help them or save them, but often when this is the case we are just enabling the person to continue in wrong behavior.

Maybe it is not a person that you are supposed to be letting go of, but an activity or even a sin. What is it in your life that you need to shed. What is bringing you down and causing an obstacle in your relationship with the Lord? If you want to live in God's best for your life. If you want to live in the place of blessing for you- then you need to be willing to get up and go when God tells you to, even if it means leaving a comfort zone or stepping back from relationships that you are in. Just because God asks you to give things up for a time does not mean it is gone forever. Once the autumn and winter season is over then there will be a spring and a summer.

I challenge you to spend time in prayer and ask God if there is anything you are supposed to be letting go of so that you can be the best you can be for Him today.