Blossoming Trees

May 14, 2008

Colossians 3:12-17

“As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Maybe you are like me. Maybe you wake up each morning aware of your proclivities toward anger, malice and abusive language that easily floats from your lips. Maybe you awake with such an awareness that is immediately countered by the understanding that you are a child of God—that you are called to a higher plane of living. Maybe you know that there is no way on earth you will be able to live as you have been called without God’s help. And so, maybe, you find yourselves awaking with a prayer that God will help you be love in this day.

After having spent a few verses telling us how we should not behave, the author of Colossians turns to let us see the positive means of behaving as those who have been chosen by God. We are to be holy, compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient. That’s a tall order for those of us who awake with completely opposite leanings. Being asked to be other than we are is next to impossible, it seems. It’s so much easier to complain about others—to acknowledge how others are not doing what we want them to do—how they fail to live up to our expectations. It is so much more fun to get exercised over things and to live in a state of unforgiveness.

But the higher way—the better way—the way that leads away from heart attacks and high blood pressures—is the way of love. The way of love is the way of peace. But to get to that way we have to first be willing to forgive others for not being the way we want them to be and to realize that there is not a human who exists that can live up to our desires for them. We have to let people be who they are. We have to look at what we like about them and celebrate that. We celebrate that by offering gratitude for those things in that person and the more we major on those celebrations the more our perspectives change from negative to positive.

Once we’ve begun that practice, all we need to do is to focus on our inner selves. When we put our spirits in the right disposition, everything else will flow into place. Frederick Buechner has said, “And deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome some day, by God's grace, by helping the seed of the kingdom grow in ourselves and in each other until finally in all of us it becomes a tree where the birds of the air can come and make their nests in our branches. That is all that matters really."

Maybe you can see the tree blossoming in you has you seek the kingdom of God within your own heart. Maybe you can see the seeds sprouting forth as even in small inklings to extend God’s love and maybe one day, if we all commit ourselves to living as Paul encourages, we might just be a forest of beautiful spiritual life where the world is a better place because we are here. May we strive for that! Amen.