Saplings and Stethoscopes 

It’s a natural human inclination to take the small parts of our lives for granted. It’s something I’ve been working on because one key to peace is experiencing those small moments. For example, when our oldest child was about four years old, my husband was just starting his own veterinary clinic. Because he worked 80-90 hours a week, he got home after the kids were in bed and left before they got up. To make up for some of this, he sometimes took one of them on a large animal call if he knew the farmer and the situation would be safer than usual (large animal work is never safe). 

On this day, he took the oldest, nicknamed Seabie, on a call. Catching the cow distracted the adults for a while. When they remembered Seabie, he had rummaged through the black bag that carried all my husband’s medicine and small instruments. Seabie found the stethoscope and had the ear pieces inserted in his ears and the other end pressed against the trunk of a sapling. 

The farmer asked him what he was doing.

Seabie replied, “Listening.”

“What do you hear?”

Seabie replied in a serious deadpan imitation of his father, “Well, the trunk is OK, but the leaves are a little bit shaky.”

Those were hard years and many times, the lighter side blessings were ignored. Small stories like this add warmth and texture to our days and illustrate how the small things make them fun and worth living. If I had paid more attention to these kinds of moments and less to the hard parts, those days would have been much better. Too many times, I ignored things like this and forgot to give thanks. 

I would like to challenge you to do life differently for the rest of this Thanksgiving season; don’t miss the small things during your days. In a small notebook you keep with you, or on your phone, record some keywords to help you remember the incidents as they happen. Any blessing from something a child said or did, a dream, an almost accident that didn’t happen at the last second, beautiful leaves that inspire awe, etc. should be recorded. 

At night, write the full incident in your journal or a thanksgiving file on your computer. In years to come, they will be a true treasure house of all the blessings the Lord has sent your way and a reminder of how good God is to you in all the seasons of your life. 

Multiplying Meat

Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERY situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:23 

Prayer and thanksgiving are necessary for a joyful Christian life. Being able to come into the presence of the awesome creator of the universe is an astounding privilege. Let me give you an example.

I was on the planning committee for a meeting and volunteered to oversee the buffet table. Part of the job was to pick up the food from the caterer an hour before the event. When we arrived, the restaurant couldn’t find any record of our order. Just before we both panicked, they located it, but it was another 10 minutes before the order came out. The kitchen sent out an invoice and not a bill with the order, so the lady at the cash register had to find a manager to figure the bill. When we finally made it to the car and back to the venue, it was ten minutes before the event. As we were hurriedly setting out the food, the chairman frowned and asked for the bill. We were short one of two trays of meat. It was time to serve and too late to call the restaurant and try to get it straightened out. Some committee members and I prayed silently for the meat to be sufficient.

The event started on time, but as the line formed and people kept coming in, I started to get uneasy, so I continued to pray. As I worked, I couldn’t help noticing how much everyone was putting on their plates. They put a LOT of food, especially meat, on their plates, so I renewed my prayers. About half way through the line, I started to notice the tray didn’t seem to be emptying as fast as I thought it should considering the number of people and the size of their servings! This bolstered my faith enough that I began praying with more consistency for the Lord to multiply the meat still on the tray. It was going down, but just not enough for what I saw being taken away. When all the guests had been through the line, there was enough for the committee members who hadn’t eaten yet to have a serving. At the end, there was no meat left, but neither did anyone go without even though we had half the meat recommended per person. 

I believe the Lord made that meat last. I watched too closely the amount taken as opposed to the amount there to believe anything else. I think the reason we don’t see more things like this, is we don’t stretch and exercise our “Prayer muscles”. We just don’t believe the Lord is interested in the more mundane areas of our lives.  Let’s resolve this Thanksgiving season to involve God in all areas of our lives, not just when it of critical personal importance or for a loved one. Praying at all times for all things demonstrates your gratitude for the gift of prayer. 

Also, remember that using what we’ve been given is the ultimate “thank-you” to the giver.

Following Jesus Requires Persistence

Herbs still have a special place in my gardener’s heart. I love to grow them both for their medicinal qualities and their taste in teas. 

One of my favorite activities is growing perennial herbs. The thing I like best about these herbs is no matter how many times I cut them back, they just keep sprouting again and producing lush leaves for another cutting. My current favorite is lemon balm. Here in north Georgia, it is so persistent I can make 4 or 5 cuttings every summer. When it first starts to put on side shoots for flowers, I cut the plants back to the ground and dry the leaves for tea. New growth appears in a few weeks, and a few weeks after that, it’s harvest time again. 

This is a lot like our lives. The Lord seems to give us a new idea and we try our best to bring it to reality, but so often when it looks like we’ll finally get it to work and bear fruit, something happens to end that cycle. We feel like we’ve been cut off at the root and wonder if we really were following the Lord, or if we misunderstood His will. Do we have as much perseverance as lemon balm when we know we are following Jesus? The lemon balm is so tough it can grow under trees, survive droughts, and has few pests that bother it. Mine has persevered and kept on producing in spite of every adversity it’s met. Are we that determined when we are following Jesus?

The Bible says in Ephesians 6:18, “…Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” 

We are to pray and not give up: follow close to know His will. James 1:4 says, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” That’s our goal: to keep praying, following, and persevering until God does his work in us and we are complete, lacking nothing and ready to bear fruit. Never give up. Keep following Jesus.

It’s our choice whether we keep looking for new ways the Holy Spirit is bringing fruitful growth to our lives, or if we give up and quit following. What is your choice going to be?

Fear of following even a trusted leader into uncharted territory is universal among animals, even ducklings. A video on the internet showed a mother duck and her large clutch of unfledged ducklings. The mother duck waddled to the middle of an arched bridge and jumped into a pond. She quacked for her ducklings. Nothing happened. She called again and one brave duckling jumped off with his tiny, unfeathered wings barely able to slow his fall. He landed with a plop and swam to his mother. Soon the other ducklings plunged off in twos and threes until only the most timid duckling was left on the bridge. It ran from one end of the bridge to the other without finding a place to jump. The mother kept calling until the duckling jumped.

 Following Jesus is no easy matter, either, even if calling oneself a “Christ Follower” is becoming the new way to say, “I’m a Christian.” Fear of the unknown can be very real and even paralyzing when we start giving up control of our lives to simply follow where Jesus leads. However, this kind of deliberately giving up control is necessary to find the peace and comfort God promises us. Exactly what does it look like to follow this way? I’d like to propose that it can look like many different things. 

All the ducklings obeyed in different ways. Obedience means trusting the Lord and doing what He says even when it looks like you’re jumping into a void. If you know you’re in God’s will, it means staying the course even when everything goes wrong and the results look disastrous. We’re born with different levels of boldness, but if we’re following Jesus, God expects us to step out on faith when He calls. 

To obey is better than sacrifice. 1 Samuel 15:22 

What kind of “duckling” are you? Are you one of the brave few who step off the bridge at the Holy Spirit’s first call, the majority who need a partner for courage even after the step is proven safe, or the recalcitrant one who only steps off when all other avenues have been exhausted? Resolve today to have a daring faith when the Lord calls you to leave your comfort zone. Follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21b