DAILY DEVOTIONAL ✝️ 

Trees

I kind of have a thing for trees, and evidently so does God! After God himself and humans, trees are the most mentioned living thing in the Bible. Of all of God’s natural creations,  they fascinate me the most. Like so many things that God has blessed us with, they are all around us and yet we take them for granted.  

 

During hot weather, trees prepare for the heat primarily by transpiring (we humans call that sweating) and altering their growth processes. As temperatures rise, trees move water to their leaves and allow it to evaporate through tiny pores called stomata, cooling themselves and their surrounding environment. 

 

Trees prepare for winter through a process called “hardening.” Water drains from cells so they won’t freeze, expand, and burst the tree. The water that remains between the cells is too pure for ice crystals to attach. Its temperature may now drop to forty degrees below zero without cracking the tree. Trees harden and sweat at the same time each year because they take their cues from the fixed calendar of shortening days. They don't stake their lives on the weather, which may be unseasonably mild or cold. They trust the sun, their one sure thing.

 

The Son who made the sun is surer yet. He is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created,” and “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17). Who tells trees when to harden each year and when is it time to “sweat”? The same Son who makes the sun rise each morning and makes it fall each night, pulls tides with the moon that is over 244,000 miles away, fills the night sky with twinkling lights, pumps your heart and inflates your lungs, and holds you when your heart is broken.

 

In this unpredictable world, you’ve got one sure thing. The one who made all things, including you, will welcome you to the tree of life (Rev 22.2) if you will welcome him into your life. ~jme

 

THOUGHT OF THE DAY 🤔 Storms make trees take deeper roots. ~Dolly Parton