Blessed Are the Pruned

Happy the clean in heart — because they shall see God. Matthew 5:8 YLT

You won’t find this beatitude in your English-language New Testament. But the original Greek word for “pure” (of heart) is katharos, from which we get “cathartic.” It means cleansed by fire, and it can mean “pruned.”

Pruning a tree can not only keep it at a manageable and attractive shape, and direct the tree’s energy to producing flowers, fruit, or new foliage, but it can save the tree’s life. I back-washed the spa, and the water ran out into the grass and into the low-lying tree wells. I thought this a responsible use of water in an arid climate! But two hours later, a freak thunderstorm, with 90 minutes of lightning, gusty winds, and about a tenth-inch of rain, blew through the valley. When I looked out the window, my five year-old bauhinia orchid tree had bent over to the ground. This tree had large orchids blooming on its long, flexible branches, and earlier in the summer, had become top-heavy with growth. With the combination of soggy soil beneath, and windy down drafts, my tree was doomed.

After the storm, with the August sun steaming up the place, I took the long-handled pruner and cut off two-thirds of the tree branches, lightening the load for the trunk. Relieved of weight, the trunk began to stand a bit higher. With great effort, and much swatting of gnats, I drove a metal stake into the ground, and a neighbor pulled the heavy tree toward the stake so I could brace it with ties. My tree, although much altered in volume, is growing straight again. While we were bracing the tree, a pair of hummingbirds came boldly to drink the nectar of the remaining blossoms. Life goes on!

Happy the clean in heart — because they shall see God. Matthew 5:8 YLT

That beautiful tree, in its pruned, cathartic state, will remind me that in persecution or adversity, the Lord can still make a blessing from the enemy’s curse. And rather than bending toward the earth in defeat, the Gardener is pruning and strengthening so we can reach toward the heavens and there see God.

Of Cheetos and Salvation

He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:24 MSG

I accepted the gift of salvation at age 27. I was raised in a Christian home and in Christian schools, where salvation by faith was taught, but we were simultaneously told in 16th-century English to “be perfect as God is perfect.” (We didn’t understand that the definition of perfection is completeness and maturity, not “without fault.”) Perfection for humans is unattainable, so salvation must also be unattainable: what was the point in trying, shrugged much of my generation.

I can perfectly observe my prescribed diet and exercise for 50 minutes daily, but not lose a pound in three weeks. After all the hard work and no visible reward, there is severe temptation to binge on high-carb, high-fat, high-sodium Cheetos! (Eating Cheetos isn’t sinful, but play along…)

Righteousness might be explained in this way: God declares us to be in right relationship to Himself. He just speaks it, as at creation, when He spoke everything into existence. He sees only His beloved and perfect (in behavior and attitude, as well as full and complete) Son Jesus, whose greatest desire is to save me. Me! Caught orange-handed with Cheetos dust, with the evidence of sin all over me! God sees my Substitute, who stands protectively between me and the glory and perfection that could vaporize me. And, as at creation, God speaks the word, “Good.” And because Creator God says it is so—it can only be so!

Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners…and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23, 24 MSG.

The concept of salvation is profound and complex. And it’s so simple that a little child gets it. Let’s just ask God to say the Word: “Jesus.” He wants to! He loves you and is yearning to walk with you. Let Him dust off the crumbs and look past your outward appearance, to see only the perfect creation that He intends you to be.

The “Look”

I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help. Psalm 123:1 MSG

Cousins on the grandparents'
Minnesota farm

© 2004 Christy K Robinson 

 One big sin my mom wrote with her finger in stone, was Thou shalt not embarrass the family. This had lots of fine print, and including breaking the Ten Commandments, raising your voice in public, disobeying anything in public, table manners, pleasing and thanking, and a hundred other regulations. 

 My family always took a summer vacation trip from Arizona to northern Minnesota, where my parents’ families lived. We’d load the avocado-green Rambler station wagon and hit the road. We saw Yosemite, the Snake River, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Ozarks, and the Rockies—some of those aren’t even on the way to Minnesota!

Trust me, fleeing was NOT an option.

 Once we arrived, there would be family reunion feasts and picnics, where the grown-ups would sit at the table for hours after the cousins had slithered under the table to play outside with the elderly horse. But not me. Although I tried to dodge her eyes, my mom gave me The Look, that penetrating laser gaze which, because she’d trained me ahead of time, meant to clear the table and wash the dishes. The relatives would say with admiration, “What a nice girl, so courteous, such manners, (etc.).” But I wasn’t gracious on the inside: I was unwillingly scraping dishes and scrubbing the stuck-on pans. Thanks a lot, Mom! (I was such a Cinderella.)

Surely your mother or father gave you The Look, and without words, you knew what was required of you, or you’d face the consequences of disobedience.

This was a whole *different* Look.

But now, as grown-ups ourselves, we think of our heavenly Father, who loves us so much He can’t take His eyes off of us. It's not a severe look--it's a look of love. Those are eyes we don’t mind meeting! With that in mind, we are inspired to look back at God in the way the Psalmist describes:  
I look to you, heaven-dwelling God, look up to you for help. Like servants, alert to their master’s commands, like a maiden attending her lady, we’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy. Psalm 123:1-2 MSG

We are looking at God with all our attention, ready to leap into action at His command to show mercy, compassion, and justice (Micah 6:8) to the rest of our human family. With only The Look from Heaven, we go to do what he has asked and prepared us to do—with willing obedience in our hearts.

The Father’s Maternal Love

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13 NIV

There are highly educated, deeply spiritual people of both genders who refer to God as “She” and “Mother,” and although I find it somewhat distracting, it doesn’t make them wrong and me right. God is infinitely more than we can imagine. More intelligent, more broad-minded, more loving, compassionate, forgiving, and accepting. Just more. His ways are higher than my ways. With that in mind, and Genesis 1:27, that God created both male and female in His image, I submit that God is not confined to gender as we perceive it. God is spirit. His appearance is defined by His character (Exodus 34:6, 7; 1 John 3:1; 1 John 4:8).

Not every human mother deserves the honors we are commanded to pay them (Exodus 20:12). Nor is every woman who yearns to be a mother, able to bear children or raise a family. Parent/child relationships are only an ideal, pointing to the real: Creator/creature. (He could have created and populated the world without parents of any species—no eggs, just adult chickens!) God is powerful, protective, far-seeing, and wants the best present and future for us.

Listen to God’s parental words: ‘Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I’d never forget you—never.’ Isaiah 49:15 MSG

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Matthew 23:37 NIV

I will extend peace… you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:12-13 NIV

The grace-full tenderness that we have received so generously from God, the maternal Father, we must share by praying for those around us, and by reflecting (in God’s image!) our Parent’s compassion to troubled friends or co-workers. Then, to complete the circle, we return that love to God with heartfelt gratitude and joy.

Promises kept

He comes alongside us when we go through hard times. 2 Corinthians 1:4 MSG

My mother was born with asthma, which developed into emphysema by age 10. At 22, she was given a year to live, but like King Hezekiah, pleaded with God to let her live to raise her children to Christian maturity. By God’s grace, she lived to age 55. She was an artist, musician, gardener, poet, genealogist, and even represented herself to an Internal Revenue commission and won her case.

But as the years passed, she pled with God to heal her or let her die, to ease her constant struggle for breath and strength. On her last night, I read Bible verses to her as I held her hand and watched the monitors record her declining heartbeat and respiration. Those hours were the most precious and intimate of my life, and I’m certain that the next voice she hears after mine will be Jesus’ voice, saying, “Wake up, little girl!”

God’s promises are for you, though we may not understand the specific or temporal application. Read 2 Corinthians 1:4-5 MSG: He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

These verses clinch my faith in God’s ultimate faithfulness and victory over present circumstances: Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 MSG

Read that again! God’s promises are Yes, pledged with Jesus’ blood and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. God has certified by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three witnesses, that His promises are sure and will be completed. Maybe not in my sight or lifetime (and there’s the rub), but I trust that He has accomplished His purpose already, and I await the resolution.

Forget About the Future?

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-15 NIV

Did you make New Year’s resolutions? You’ve decided to lose weight, learn a language, find a significant other, start voice lessons, stop bad habits, exercise more, or clean the garage. Most people forget or break their resolutions within two weeks of making them.

Recently, a song which had been just background noise, arrested me with the line, “Forget about the future, let’s get on with the past.”

That’s pretty anti-committal and unwilling to face the uncertainty of the unknown. But how many of us have done that? (Over and over?) Don’t raise your hands—we’re all pretty obvious. All right, let’s not forget about the future, or get on with the past, but maybe we could concentrate on the present at least?

That never-say-die apostle wrote, “Forgetting what is behind [the past] and straining toward what is ahead [the future], I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”

Straining toward the future! Every morning at 5:30, my Border collie acts like a Siberian husky, pulling me along, choking in her eagerness to sniff the next tree in the parkway. There’s high tension in that leash, as I drowsily stumble along behind, mumbling, “Slow down, doggie! It’s too early to be enthusiastic.”

The thought that God wants me to strain toward what is ahead is a hard teaching. We all tend to “think differently,” but God intends to make it clear that instead of our being a reluctant Jonah, He wants us to take the path of least resistance to Him. God will lead us toward the goal and its prize. And it seems clear from His Word that He wants us to forget the past and get on with the future. If there’s no tension on your spiritual collar, you’re not really straining. Where is God leading today? Get out there, and pull like a working dog!

Obstacles

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. Psalm 34:5 NIV

My Border collie Evie was abused in her first 18 months, then abandoned at a county kennel. Because of her pure breed, she was fostered for six months by a rescue organization, then advertised on the Internet, and that’s where I found her. Her foster mom, therapist, and trainer for six months was Paula, who described the numerous attempts to lead Evie through the agility course obstacles. Evie did well on weaving, diving through a tunnel, and leaping through a hoop, but balked at the high and narrow walk. She refused the walk at first, then took it each time with increasing confidence and purpose, looking forward to praise and treats with each success.
Paula said, “I gave the command, and she bounded in! I called to her to Walk It, and she trotted up. I sat on the ground and called her into my arms, as my tears spilled onto her coat. Evie ran the rest of the course off-lead, willing and wagging. I don’t know the last time I have been so touched and so proud of a dog.”

We’ve all been in a place where we’re unsure or scared to move, even with encouragement. Fears are not entirely irrational, as they stem from previous experiences and injuries. God leads us through dark tunnels and obstacles, but still we balk. We fear speaking in public, showing strong emotion, being alone, not having enough money, being noticed, not being noticed, wondering if we’re good enough. God keeps leading us into strength and confidence.

Each time Evie came to the obstacle, it got easier. Although the course didn’t change in difficulty, she trusted her trainer to stay with her, and that there would be love and treats afterward. Do you remember the times the Lord brought you through a challenge and you emerged victorious? There was intimacy in God’s arms as He embraced you.

Psalm 34:4-5 NIV says, I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

May we take a lesson from the furry children of God and find no reason to shrink from God’s adventures and challenges. Let’s move boldly out there, taking the steps God has planned for us.

Suburban Safari

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done…If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count. Psalm 40:5 NASB

On her back yard outings, calico cat Abby hunts for lizards and grasshoppers. When she does catch something, she brings it to me for inspection. Bugs get eaten, lizards released.

Late one night, I awoke to a shrill twittering. When I turned on the light, I saw a tiny gray field mouse cowering by the baseboard, with Abby ready to pounce. She’d caught him in the screen porch, and brought him inside to show me. The mouse looked exactly like one of Abby’s toy mousies, only this one had locomotion and a sound card!

Abby and I chased the mouse around and under furniture (with different purposes in mind). Somehow I managed to “herd” the mouse into the bathroom and stop up the space under the door. Abby wasn’t happy.

The next morning, I decided I’d better catch that mouse and put him outside. So I pushed the shower curtain over the closed shower door, and sure enough, there was a tiny thud when the mouse dropped onto the fiberglass floor. I let myself into the shower, and sat on the ledge, contemplating how to catch the mouse without hurting it. The mouse hoped his gray fur would blend with the white shower tile.

I wondered how I appear to God. God has a plan, and wants to rescue me and set me in safety, but all I can see is this moment, and this moment is frightening.

But back to the shower mouse. I sacrificed a tissue box, and slowly moved toward him. “No! No!” he squeaked. I moved in slowly. The box came down over the mouse, I tumbled him down to the bottom, and clapped a glass saucer over the top. I walked to the back yard corner and set the box down in the bouganvilla flowers. The mouse huddled in his new comfort zone, so I tipped him out of the box, into a deep pile of pink flower bracts. When I checked on him ten minutes later, he’d escaped to a world of blossoms. I saw the mouse again recently. Abby had him treed. The mouse still lives, and the cat is still frustrated!

The Lord’s thoughts toward us are of compassion and care for His children. We have nothing to fear from His rescue.

Ding-a-Ling

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. Isaiah 11:6 NIV

When we were given a Siamese kitten, my eight-year-old brother was given the privilege of naming the cat. Mom suggested that Siamese are given musical-sounding names; perhaps something that rhymed with ding-a-ling. “That’s it!” my brother shouted, “His name will be Ding-a-Ling.” And that was that. (Mom took the cat to the vet for the annual exam and shots. When the vet assistant called out “Ding-a-Ling Robinson,” Mom had to stand up in humiliation.) At home we called the cat Ding, except when introducing him to visitors—or the vet! Then it was “Ah-Ling.” Snobby? Maybe.

Ding was protective of his family. He would calmly face down big dogs, who would back off, looking everywhere but at the cat. You could almost hear them say, “Cat? What cat? I’m just dropping my tail, and moving off slowly, slowly…” The humorous graphic of a pussy cat seeing a lion reflected in the mirror, says it all for Ding-a-Ling, a very brave cat.

You’ll not find pet cats in the Bible of the Hebrews, although the Egyptians had cherished and worshipped domestic cats for thousands of years. In fact, the only felines mentioned in Scripture are leopards and lions, fearsome beasts. (Isaiah 11:6, Daniel 7:6, Revelation 13:2, Jeremiah 13:23, and others.) The evil one is depicted as a lion seeking people to devour. But Jesus is symbolized as the Lion of Judah—regal, strong, and mighty.

Some of my friends dislike, fear, and/or are allergic to cats, which is almost incomprehensible to me. I marvel at the beauty of the cat’s graceful physique, the texture and colors of fur, and not least, their individual “personalities.” My heavenly home will be furnished with cats, cats, and more cats.

In Jesus’ kingdom, The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox…They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD. Isaiah 11:6, 7, 9 NIV

How our Creator loves us, to fill our world from Eden to the New Earth, with such delightful, mysterious, inspiring creatures as felines.