As I look out at the many leaves falling to the ground, I notice how bare the trees look.  They look dead.  They look as if no life is in them.  And they will look this way for about 5 months.  Isn't that strange?  Almost half the year the leaves aren't on the trees.  And it looks depressing and I miss my green.

But there is growth happening in that tree, we just don't see it.  It may look dead, it may look depressed, but there is beautiful growth happening and we won't see it until the blossoms of springtime heralding a new day.  Heralding in new everything, new leaves, new ring of growth in the trunk, and bringing in the freshness and newness of nature.  Birds return and spring babies appear everywhere.

And so it goes with our faith.  Many times the most beautiful growth happens when it's not full of green and flowers.  The rings of maturity happen when we empty our entire self, when we let go of the things that keep us from being renewed.  And in our quiet, seemingly lonely battles within that we keep to ourselves, our Savior is preparing us for the newness when we can raise our branches, our arms to the sky and proclaim in our flowering hands that He Reigns. 

Jesus knows life is hard.  Jesus knows pain, He knows loneliness.  He was there on the cross.  Longing for His Father, Jesus cried out!  "My God, My God!  Why have you forsaken me?"

And He wants us to praise Him, even when we don't feel like it.  And that is where the maturity "rings of faith" grow.

And so, as the trees, let us drop our "leaves," our self, be broken, come to Him, and know that we WILL be restored.  It may take a long time, but we can rest on the Promise of God, of Who He Is.