This afternoon I was sitting outside in the sun watching Spring happen. Right before my eyes the buds on the trees were opening. It was so perfect I was reminded of Micah 4:4, “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.” I am beginning to grasp the wonder of this idea of sitting under one’s fig tree. (Mine are mostly birches and maples.) Micah had a utopian dream of a time of peace and prosperity when all would be well for everyone. Thousands of years have passed and it still hasn’t happened. We still live in a world filled with wars, revolutions, famines, earthquakes and societal problems.
It seems there is plenty of bad news to make us all miserable. But, we do not need to be constantly concentrating on the dismal. I am not advocating putting our head in the sand and pretending all is well. However, we have been given the option of choice. We can choose with what we want to fill our waking thoughts. We can have a really good day or a really bad day depending on our own choices of thought. If we fill our minds with good memories and good wishes for others, life takes on a glow. I know I sound like Pollyanna but none-the-less this is true.
So, find your own personal fig tree; it can be anything or anyone who makes you happy and love it. Jesus often said the Kingdom of God begins now. We don’t have to wait for some future heaven.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 25, 2013
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org