SHRUBS AND TREES
Today's reading: Jeremiah 17-21

"This is what the Lord says: Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in a barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried about long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they go right on producing delicious fruit." Jeremiah 17:5-8 NLT

Now is the time to cue up the Wild West music. The haunting whistle of wind across an old Vaquero's guitar. The music that leads us to believe a parched, worn and dusty cowboy will soon be seen in the sunset...

The camera scans from left to right across the barren desert prairie where we see a weathered skull of a long horn, dust devils that swirl across the canyons and short, scruffy shrubs. Shrubs that because of such shallow roots and minimal rain, will at the next gust of wind break from their moorings and tumble across the land scape.

That's what I think of when I read Jeremiah's words about our roots.

Am I a tumbleweed, no roots, no hope, no legacy?

Or am I that strong tree growing along the riverbank? One that external circumstances do not affect? One that lasts? One that benefits others?

I know which one I want to be...what about you?