Made to Be Shade

     As most of you know that read my blog regularly my children are the inspiration for most of my blogs. They say things and do things on a regular basis that spur my thoughts toward Biblical things to write about. The other day, I was reading a story in my homeschool teacher's book from Alpha Omega. In the story a little boy went to the park with his parents, he played on the slide and the swing, then his mother called him to come sit on the blanket for a picnic with her and the boys father. The little boy ended up taking a nap under a big shade tree. When he woke up he asked the father, "Why did God make trees so big?" To which the father replied, "So that we could use them for their shade." We've been talking about shadows this past week in school, and it reminded me that shade is a shadow. That might seem like a no brainer to most of you, but I want you to really think of the spiritual application of this. In our lives we start out as a seed when we accept Christ as our personal Savior. God convicts us, and we grow, God chastens us, and we grow. All this while our tree seed should be sprouting into a small tree. Trials come, the winter causes hardening of branches, but in comes the Spring and the Tree grows. It grows and grows and grows. One day, you look up and the tree has made a large shadow or shade spot to be used for someone who doesn't know Christ to be able to see him in your life. You are becoming more and more like the "tree" your father made you to be.
         "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers:  But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; And on his law doth he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Psalm 1:1-3 God has made us in his image. He desires for us to be like him and be that "shade" tree for those to come to the knowledge of him as their Savior. Listen to this Paraphrase in the Message of  2 Corinthians 3:16-18: "Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are - face to face!  They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it!  All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." God desires for us to be more like him and be that shade so that others might rest in the shadow of the Almighty just as we desire to. We were Made to BE shade!

God is so good!
Jamie