By: Deborah Lovett 
 John 7:37-38 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

God has revealed a metaphor to me this morning. I am finding God in the Weeping Willows.

When my husband and I built our first home, we endured the many ‘fix it’ problems that come with the luxury of building.
One concern was the many water problems (standing puddles) that we had in our yard. We had water everywhere, especially when the snow or rain came! Today it reminds me of the flooding on the news, only it was not nearly as bad.

So my husband spoke to a trench man, who said he could lay tiles and actually channel or move the water for us to another location. It would be terribly expensive though. A couple days later I spoke to a lady who suggested we plant Weeping Willow trees. She said they love water, and that is why you usually see them planted next to ponds.

God reminded me how we live in a ‘quick fix’ world. We take the problem and try to eliminate it by giving it to someone else to deal with, (move it to another location), or try and find the easiest solution, rather than the best, or blame someone else. (Just look at our government for perfect examples of each of these.)

Then I thought of how many times we move away from God, our source of Living Water (the Holy Spirit, our Counselor) by actually replacing our quiet time with some busy activity, idol, or maybe we even move Him to the side by sleeping in. We are never too busy to do the things that WE want to do.

Some times we tell others about the Lord and yet we have not drank of the Water ourselves; giving them a quick fix, rather than the life giving Power of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to be like the Willow Tree who stands by the pond of water constantly drinking and giving beauty to all who see it. Only in our case it would be living in constant communion with God through unceasing prayer and conversation by practicing the presence of God.

What’s in your life today that you are trying to relocate, come up with an easy fix for or even eliminate, that could become a source of God’s beauty if you would only come, listen, believe, and repent to the Living God? Do you see bad circumstances as opportunities to allow the Spirit within you to develop something that looks just like Jesus? First we come and believe, then the flowing takes place. Everyone loves to be around a person who flows streams of living water for they represent the peace, forgiveness and love that Jesus died to give us.
Today I am finding God in the Weeping Willows!

Watch the Youtube video below of the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer and sung here by Paul Robeson and his incredible bass voice.  Lovely tree photos.