Bloom Part 2: Olive Trees
As I've been thinking about the year and wanting to truly blossom, I decided to look up the words blossom and bloom in the Bible. You would think maybe I had a green thumb and enjoyed planting flowers. I enjoy seeing flowers, but I'm horrible at planting and maintaining them. I've killed every plant ever given to me. My husband on the other hand is the gardener. He pays attention to the details of seed types and how to plant and where. He knows the right amount of water and fertilizer to keep things growing. I just watch, but I am enjoying seeing God's word filled with flowers, herbs and the imagery of blooming.
Hosea 14:5-6 says, “I will be like dew to the people of Israel. They will blossom like flowers. They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon. They will be like growing branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.”
Isn't that a beautiful verse. I want to blossom like flowers and be rooted like the mighty cedars. I wondered what was beautiful about the olive tree. I looked at a picture on-line and it looked like any other little fruit bearing tree.
Then I thought about olive trees and how important they were for food, and oil. Perhaps the beauty mentioned wasn't because of outward appearance, but because of what it provided. It provides sustenance. We can bloom and be beautiful not based on our appearances. I think of the many moms I know and outwardly we may look disheveled, like we didn't sleep in days. We may seem like just another ordinary mom. Yet these same mothers are beautiful people, who I see giving their all for their children. They are providing sustenance physically and spiritually leading their small clan. Yes, that is beautiful.
I wondered what other treasures were locked in this little olive tree. What else made it beautiful for the Israelite people. It turns out there is so much symbolism packed into that small tree. After the destruction of the Earth with the flood, Noah sends out a dove and it returns with an olive branch in it's mouth. It symbolized peace. It showed the end of the rains and storms, that a place of refuge was coming. Oh Lord, how that speaks to my heart. May the storms and the turbulence come to an end and may we see peace. The excitement Noah must have felt knowing he would be out of the ark soon.
If the olive tree is cut down it will still sends out new shoots and continues to grow. How beautiful is that. When we are cut down by life we can grow afresh. There are olive trees in Israel thought to be a 1,000 years old and yet they still produce fruit. Oh Lord as I grow and age may I not grow weary and die out, but may I produce fruit always.
The olive was used for making oil which was a staple of the Israelite life. It provided food, but was also used in anointing, blessing, cleansing and healing. How beautiful that little tree becomes. God even directed the people that when they hit or shook the olive branches to harvest the olives that they didn't do it a second time, but that they left the rest of the fruit for the orphans and widows to glean from.(Deuteronomy 24:20) How beautiful indeed; to look at an olive tree and know that it was there to provide for you even if you were in despair. It reminds me of how Jesus provides for us. He sustains us, anoints us, blesses and heals us. He provides for our needs and encourages us to grow.
Interestingly wild olive trees are worthless. They have to be grafted and taken care of to produce fruit. In Romans Paul talks about the natural and wild olives referring to the Jews and the Gentiles. We have to be pruned, and grafted in order to produce fruit. Oh how true that is in our spiritual lives as well. I desire to bloom and bear fruit, so thank you Lord for tending to me, grafting and pruning away the old that something new and beautiful can unfold.
For Christmas two of my children took dried gourds and hollowed them out and painted them for me. One is a goose-neck gourd and is painted in beautiful blues. My daughter wood carved it with flowers on it. I thought it would make the perfect vase. So it sits on my bookshelf with fake hyssop to remind me of God's redemptive work. The other one is more in the shape of a large bowl from my son. He too painted it in my favorite shades of blue and wood carved flowers on it. Perhaps God was using that to imprint the need to bloom in my heart. I placed plastic flowers that look like the fire-weed flower in that one and set it on my piano to remind me that blossoms come after being scorched. It's a reminder for myself and for my little one that's been through such huge life fires at such a young age. It reminds me that she too will blossom. Now, I think I need an olive branch too. After studying it I think it's truly beautiful. It is a reminder of God's provision, sustaining us, healing us, pruning us and providing a safe place after a raging storm.
Hosea 14:5-6 says, “I will be like dew to the people of Israel. They will blossom like flowers. They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon. They will be like growing branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.”
Isn't that a beautiful verse. I want to blossom like flowers and be rooted like the mighty cedars. I wondered what was beautiful about the olive tree. I looked at a picture on-line and it looked like any other little fruit bearing tree.
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| Olive Trees |
Then I thought about olive trees and how important they were for food, and oil. Perhaps the beauty mentioned wasn't because of outward appearance, but because of what it provided. It provides sustenance. We can bloom and be beautiful not based on our appearances. I think of the many moms I know and outwardly we may look disheveled, like we didn't sleep in days. We may seem like just another ordinary mom. Yet these same mothers are beautiful people, who I see giving their all for their children. They are providing sustenance physically and spiritually leading their small clan. Yes, that is beautiful.
I wondered what other treasures were locked in this little olive tree. What else made it beautiful for the Israelite people. It turns out there is so much symbolism packed into that small tree. After the destruction of the Earth with the flood, Noah sends out a dove and it returns with an olive branch in it's mouth. It symbolized peace. It showed the end of the rains and storms, that a place of refuge was coming. Oh Lord, how that speaks to my heart. May the storms and the turbulence come to an end and may we see peace. The excitement Noah must have felt knowing he would be out of the ark soon.
If the olive tree is cut down it will still sends out new shoots and continues to grow. How beautiful is that. When we are cut down by life we can grow afresh. There are olive trees in Israel thought to be a 1,000 years old and yet they still produce fruit. Oh Lord as I grow and age may I not grow weary and die out, but may I produce fruit always.
The olive was used for making oil which was a staple of the Israelite life. It provided food, but was also used in anointing, blessing, cleansing and healing. How beautiful that little tree becomes. God even directed the people that when they hit or shook the olive branches to harvest the olives that they didn't do it a second time, but that they left the rest of the fruit for the orphans and widows to glean from.(Deuteronomy 24:20) How beautiful indeed; to look at an olive tree and know that it was there to provide for you even if you were in despair. It reminds me of how Jesus provides for us. He sustains us, anoints us, blesses and heals us. He provides for our needs and encourages us to grow.
Interestingly wild olive trees are worthless. They have to be grafted and taken care of to produce fruit. In Romans Paul talks about the natural and wild olives referring to the Jews and the Gentiles. We have to be pruned, and grafted in order to produce fruit. Oh how true that is in our spiritual lives as well. I desire to bloom and bear fruit, so thank you Lord for tending to me, grafting and pruning away the old that something new and beautiful can unfold.
For Christmas two of my children took dried gourds and hollowed them out and painted them for me. One is a goose-neck gourd and is painted in beautiful blues. My daughter wood carved it with flowers on it. I thought it would make the perfect vase. So it sits on my bookshelf with fake hyssop to remind me of God's redemptive work. The other one is more in the shape of a large bowl from my son. He too painted it in my favorite shades of blue and wood carved flowers on it. Perhaps God was using that to imprint the need to bloom in my heart. I placed plastic flowers that look like the fire-weed flower in that one and set it on my piano to remind me that blossoms come after being scorched. It's a reminder for myself and for my little one that's been through such huge life fires at such a young age. It reminds me that she too will blossom. Now, I think I need an olive branch too. After studying it I think it's truly beautiful. It is a reminder of God's provision, sustaining us, healing us, pruning us and providing a safe place after a raging storm.
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| Olive Branch |
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