2020 Advent Devotional
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
The Branch of the Lord
Read Isaiah 4:2-6
Devotional by Craig Whitley
Our mountain neighbors grow apple trees. For decades, and from a remote Ashe County farm, they have collected and propagated rare heirloom Appalachian apple varieties. While they make a modest living, this is a labor of love. Our neighbors aim to save these obscure varieties from extinction and to restore them to their former glory, one sapling at a time.
Apple conservation isn’t easy. Planting seeds from the old tree won’t cut it—the seedling grows up to be something else. So, my neighbors graft, splicing a cutting from the father tree onto young rootstock. The rootstock doesn’t much matter. Any young apple tree will do. However, the cutting must be special: young, straight, strong, and ready to bud-the kind of shoot found up high on the sunny side of the old tree. Once grafted, special shoot and ordinary rootstock grow together. A year later, you have a new tree, just like the old one.
Seems to me, God wanted a special tree. He had some decent rootstock in the line of David, but from long experience he knew that wasn’t enough to produce the tree he wanted. So, God reached up high on the sunny side and chose Jesus Christ, the Messiah - Isaiah’s branch that springs from the stock of David. And as the prophet describes in today’s passage, in due time that inspired union will produce the Kingdom Eternal, to say nothing of our own redemption and salvation.
Apples or humans, God is quite the conservationist. To our eternal blessing.
Prayer The Lord’s been good to me, and so I thank the Lord. For giving me the things I need, the Sun, the rain, and this most special apple tree. The Lord’s been good to me. AMEN.
Devotional by Craig Whitley
Our mountain neighbors grow apple trees. For decades, and from a remote Ashe County farm, they have collected and propagated rare heirloom Appalachian apple varieties. While they make a modest living, this is a labor of love. Our neighbors aim to save these obscure varieties from extinction and to restore them to their former glory, one sapling at a time.
Apple conservation isn’t easy. Planting seeds from the old tree won’t cut it—the seedling grows up to be something else. So, my neighbors graft, splicing a cutting from the father tree onto young rootstock. The rootstock doesn’t much matter. Any young apple tree will do. However, the cutting must be special: young, straight, strong, and ready to bud-the kind of shoot found up high on the sunny side of the old tree. Once grafted, special shoot and ordinary rootstock grow together. A year later, you have a new tree, just like the old one.
Seems to me, God wanted a special tree. He had some decent rootstock in the line of David, but from long experience he knew that wasn’t enough to produce the tree he wanted. So, God reached up high on the sunny side and chose Jesus Christ, the Messiah - Isaiah’s branch that springs from the stock of David. And as the prophet describes in today’s passage, in due time that inspired union will produce the Kingdom Eternal, to say nothing of our own redemption and salvation.
Apples or humans, God is quite the conservationist. To our eternal blessing.
Prayer The Lord’s been good to me, and so I thank the Lord. For giving me the things I need, the Sun, the rain, and this most special apple tree. The Lord’s been good to me. AMEN.
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