The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, 

Because the Lord has anointed me 

To bring good news to the afflicted; 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; 

To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord 

And the day of vengeance of our God; 

To comfort all who mourn, 

To grant those who mourn in Zion, 

Giving them a garland instead of ashes, 

The oil of gladness instead of mourning, 

The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. 

So they will be called oaks of righteousness, 

The planting of the Lord,

That He may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:1-3)

I believe those of us who are trusting in Jesus as our savior are the plantings of the Lord and that because He did the planting, it is not an exaggeration to call us oaks of righteousness. What a desirable image! An oak is the king of the forest. It is tall and resilient, having faced off with hundreds of storms and seasons of drought. I think this must be God’s vision of our inner (and eternal) man. All indications are this growth will continue even as our earthly trunks succumb to rot.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

I have reached the age now that my family and others are looking at me and saying, “That’s not the same tree I used to know.” They see that neither the Spring nor the Fall colors are as vibrant. They know there is some rot in the trunk and stand ready (I hope) to prop me up when the wind blows. How strange that I did not see this coming, that my light affliction would include a degenerative spine that seems to drain the sap right out of me. Yet, I must recall that this  shrinkage and weakening of my body is temporary and is off set by an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 

Like it or not, for a season, our bodies remain captives to an unpleasant demise. It is inevitable this affliction will cause some heartbreak at times. That’s ok. Aging is just the most recent storm and the oak that God planted will be strengthened by it. Even though the winds blow and gravity prevails over the visible tree, its spirit can remain strong and resilient because we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. 

Perhaps we can borrow from the spirit of Isiah’s words and confess something like this…

The Spirit of the Lord God is in us, and has anointed us to be good news (even as aged trees) to others similarly afflicted. He has sent us to bind up each other’s broken hearts; to proclaim our liberty to each other; to proclaim that this is the favorable year of the Lord even if there is some rot in the trunk. We can comfort each other when we mourn, knowing, in Christ, we have been given the oil of gladness.

Even as our leaves fall and the branches become brittle, it is my prayer that our inner strength be magnified. I pray that our inevitable demise would not fuel our sorrow, rather it would reinforce the grain that is still forming in our inner man, all for the glory of the One who has planted us. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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