Spirit & Body

My husband held out his palm to reveal tiny apple seeds from the delicious apple he had just eaten.

“What are you going to do with those seeds?” my mother asked. “Plant them,” he replied.

When my mom heard his answer, she had me drive her to the local tree nursery, where she bought him an apple tree with a big ball of roots. Upon return, my mom presented the tree to my husband and said, “Happy forty-fifth birthday! I’d like to see you eat an apple from this tree before I die.” And she did.

My husband’s birthday tree has been a blessing. It provides shade in the summer. He peels and serves apple quarters to the grandchildren and our neighbor’s goats.

Apples are also a symbol for teachers. I have been gifted a crystal apple, apple coffee mugs, and apple bookmarks. As educators, we plant for a time we may never see.

Maybe apples symbolize teaching because school starts in the fall. I took my teacher an apple and sent my children with apples, and the tradition continues today.

Planting small seeds can entail helping a student fill in the gaps in their learning. Maybe it’s as simple as how to form each letter correctly. Maybe it’s teaching a budding artist how to hold a paintbrush. Tiny seeds become trees.

We can tutor, giving of our time and talents at the local library. Or we can volunteer to feed the hungry at the local shelter. One of the hardest things for me to comprehend is how many students live at a homeless shelter and do their homework in a crowded room full of noise.

Birds perch in the branches of the trees we plant. Former students return to see teachers and say, “Thank you for being that person in my life.” It matters more than anyone can calculate. Thinking back to that teacher who believed in you is like perching in that tree that a teacher planted. Teaching in any setting is so rewarding. If no one has told you today, “Thank you.” And keep doing it.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and sahinsezerdincer.)

One morning, weary after a week of the endless news cycle filled with reports of mass school shootings, I grew discouraged and despaired of where our world was heading. In the latest incident, a teenager fatally shot another young man, a recent high school graduate who had several minutes before walked across the stage to receive his diploma. And if that wasn’t tragic enough, the shooter also killed the victim’s father and little sister.

Dejected, I trod downstairs to log in to my 6 a.m. biweekly prayer meeting. I had prayed with this group of sister-friends since March of 2020 after Covid hit our world. Three years later, we continued to meet. The Lord impressed us to pray for the youth, so we did. With passionate cries to heaven, each woman prayed for a move of the Holy Spirit among the youth that would bring revival.

On my drive to school, I lamented to the Lord that the enormity of our youth's situation made me feel as if our prayers were just a drop in a bucket. Instead of being rejuvenated and hopeful from our time of prayer, I felt dejected.

At once, I felt the Lord whisper, Daughter, aren’t buckets filled one drop at a time?

“Yes,” I replied.

God’s impressions continued, Your prayers are added to the prayers of others, and together, they fill the bucket that causes My hand to move. Keep praying.

Encouraged, I felt a release from the heavy burden that was never mine to carry.

John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, described a scene in heaven. The four living beings and twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before the Lamb at the throne of God. Each held a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people throughout the millennia of time.

Our drops of prayer fill those bowls daily. From the brief “Help me, Jesus” to the long intercessions, from the silent cries of our heart to the groans without words, God hears and answers them all. Every drop of prayer is significant and needed to fill up the bowls of heaven.

Keep praying and don’t give up. Keep adding your drops to the bowls.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and 5598375.)

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Many people only hear what they want—sometimes blocking out the most important stuff.

A relationship I had been in for over seven years never felt quite right. After being a widow for five years, my heart was lonely, and I felt as if a partner would fill my heart. But I eventually realized I wanted the relationship more than he did. I felt little peace in this relationship. As I grew closer to God in my search for peace, I grew apart from this person. At my weakest point, I heard God say He would provide. I left the relationship to be on my own again.

With God and others, having a good relationship requires that we listen more than we talk. Listening to God brings great peace. Fear and uncertainty can cloud our perspective, but peace from God gives us comfort and assurance in all circumstances.

Many times, we let order temporarily calm us, only to have conflict break that down. Studying God’s Word and listening to His promptings will bring real peace beyond all understanding.

Decide to listen to God daily.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and Vizslafotozas.)

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The vibrations quivered to the spires of Staffordshire’s gothic cathedral as the four-part children’s choir from Baltimore resounded the hymn “Amazing Grace.” Ms. Fallon was precise yet fun in directing and sustaining the children’s voices at this site for the UK summer competition.

I watched from the oak pew with its finely embroidered prayer pillows, savoring the heavenly tunes that floated to the marble buttresses. The pews complemented the story of Martin Luther etched in the pulpit and the stained-glass motifs depicting the cross Jesus carried.

As I gazed up at the glass, I saw the translucent sun’s rays ignite red hues and saw dripping blood surrounding our Savior’s crown of thorns and pierced limbs.

As Jesus carried the cross, His back must have ached along the narrow Via Dolorosa. He suffered as the Lamb of God who died in sacrificial love for our trespasses. Yet on a rainy day, I'm distracted by my backache. I apply a soothing salve, but the following day, it throbs agai—so minute compared to His stripes.

Jesus’ heart and soul must have ached when His apostle family betrayed Him. Bodily death and separation from His father were soon to be realities.

I inwardly groan when my family annoys me with the same irritating habits or when they act ungrateful when I shoulder the responsibility of caring for them. So minuscule compared to what Jesus bore.

Jesus groaned while He was here, and we continue to groan with the help of the Holy Spirit. And we wait because we sense in our deeper recesses something better, wiser, perfect, and just. We wait for the brilliant expectation of the perfect body to materialize once we appear by His side. 

Groan to the Lord in utterances and song. As you do, the Spirit will intercede for you with wordless groans. God’s power will keep you steadfast as He perfects what is prepared for you. 

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and sabinevanerp.)

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What words come to mind as you read the following list: Braveheart (William Wallace), Harriet Tubman, Florence Nightingale, Mother Teresa, Polycarp, the ten Boom family (Corrie, her sister, Betsy, and father), and Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Courageous? Brave? Social influencer? All of these, but I submit that a succinct descriptor of their characters is found in a single word: hero. Each of those individuals laid aside their personal welfare for the benefit of others.

Thinking of ourselves as heroes may be difficult or even impossible to imagine, especially if we take our cues from the movies. Movie heroes jump off tall buildings, crash through fiery walls, parachute out of supersonic planes, and receive multiple punches to the head without blacking out. We can’t imitate them in those ways.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you”–when you already have it with you. In these verses, King Solomon of Israel provides a realistic heroic path for us to follow—something we can accomplish. If God has granted us the means and power to do good to our neighbor, we should not hold back but do it.

But what is the good Solomon refers to? That depends on our neighbor's needs. A word of encouragement, a trip to the grocery store, a visit to the hospital, prayer, a listening ear, crying or rejoicing together, a word of correction when harm is being done, an apology or forgiveness, giving our time and attention to one who can never pay us back, an invitation to a holiday meal.

When we act for our neighbor’s good, we imitate the one true hero, Jesus Christ. Think of some good things you can do for your neighbors.  

(Photo courtesy of pixabay and jools_sh.)

(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)