A few weeks ago there was a post regarding “birds”. The following story really caught my eye when I read the line about “judging”.  Once again, is nature teaching us lessons if we but pay attention? I for one due tend to judge things and how I see them.  Often times when I see the “bigger picture” I realize that I have been wrong!

There are multiple passages in the Bible, Qur’an, and Torah about judging. Matthew 7:1-29  “Judge not, that ye be not judged…”Le’el orekh din (God who sits in judgement) in the main prayers of Rosh Hashanah Surat al Hujurat (49:11) “O you have believed, avoid much negative assumption…”

I think it is worth noting…..are we judging?

 

Gods Lesson within Hidden Branches

By: Sharon Ann

I have always hated winter—the cold, the snow, the ice, the wind, but mostly the barren woods.  In response to those who have said that they love winter, I have emphatically stated many a time, “Look how ugly the trees are. There’s no life out there, it’s dismal, grey, death is all around us!”  Ok, I was being a bit dramatic to make my point to “winter lovers,” but that is how much I disliked winter.

Then one day in mid-January as I backed out of my garage my eyes fell upon barren bushes. To my surprise the thought came to me, “They’re not so ugly.”  My thoughts—quick flashes—saw an interesting entwinement of branches.  As I put my car into drive I noticed within the bushes a tiny bird’s nest, cuddled in its branches.  And I thought, “If it were not for this season, I would never have seen that one small nest.”

With this surprising thought, I drove to work thinking about how we judge life by what we see—like leafy summer trees and barren winter trees, like life and death. In life there’s a veil that we can’t see through—like my bush that sat all summer with the unseen little nest within. Life is surrounded by (so-called) green leaves, hiding our spiritual treasure of true life. We don’t want to look at death.  We don’t like looking at the barren trees.  But it is only in death that we can see our spiritual life hidden in the crevices of God’s love, in the branches of God’s arms.

When I complain about winter, I know the trees aren’t really dead. Our wise Church tells us that after death we and our loved ones are not dead nor dormant, but rather “fully” alive.  We just can’t see “this reality” because of life’s leaves.

Let us be thankful to our Master Designer of life!

I encourage comments and discussion on all the God Shots. Please comment or reply to existing comments using the form below