We made piles of crisp leaves to jump into with no worries
about dirt or bugs. We were kids!
We raked them into orderly lines to create "walls"
for houses. We shaped them into furniture. We brought out our dolls and their
blankets and played for hours.
But, there came a time when the leaves were just no more
fun. They'd deteriorated too much. That meant it was time for them to be raked
and burned. Oh, the smell of burning leaves. Autumn was in the air.
Sadly, that's not so much the case anymore. My husband used
a leaf blower to propel our leaves into piles at the edge of the street for
city pick up. Hopefully, that will happen before the wind blows them all back
into our yard—or the neighbor's.
The wind has already
began redistributing them!
The first mention of leaves in the Word of God is in the
Garden. When sin exposed their nakedness, Adam and Eve picked leaves off fig
trees and sewed them together to create coverings.
Their effort to hide, though, was unsuccessful. It didn't
"work." Not only did sin's consequences include exclusion from eating
of the tree of life, Adam and Eve were sent from their Garden home wearing death—the
skin of dead animals on the outside, the beginning of physical death on the
inside and the death of spiritual oneness with their Creator.
Our first parents were taken away like the leaves, and so it
is for all of us, their descendants. "We have all become
like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted
garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us
away." (Isaiah 64:6 ESV)
Yet, the prophet Jeremiah wrote, ““Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree
planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear
when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of
drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV) Praise the Creator for His plan from the beginning for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Genesis 3:15)
The last mention of leaves in the Scripture fills those
who serve the Lord with hope by telling us that we will have access to the
leaves of the tree of life which will be used to bring healing for the nations.
(Revelation 22:2)
The difference between hiding and healing is, as Jeremiah
wrote, found in trusting the Lord. It is in listening to and heeding His voice,
which clearly sounds through the "leaves" of His Word, the Bible.
Praying mom, when you bring your child to the Lord in
prayer, be sure you are also bringing with you the Word of God, "leaves"
that are for healing not hiding. The result will be anxiety healed and fruit borne
of the Lord's powerful Word acting on behalf of your child.
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