A Flourishing Tree

Proverbs 11:28

      “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”

      I’ve always had a collector’s heart.  As a kid, I collected stamps.  Baseball cards.  Comics.  Now, as an adult, I tend to collect knives, books western movies on DVD.  Sometimes I wonder, do I really need another knife or book?

      Of course, it’s not about need.  It’s about the childlike thrill of getting something new.  Or sometimes the satisfaction of getting something old, something rare.  Whatever captivates our imagination, we’re tempted to believe that if we only had “X,” our lives would be better.  We’d be happy.  Content.

      Except those things never deliver the goods.  Why?  Because God created us to be filled by Him, not by the things that the world around us often insists will satisfy our longing hearts.  There is a vacuum filled void deep within our hearts that causes us to search for something to fill it with and so, we tend to keep searching, gathering, collecting.

This feeling is hardly new.  Proverbs contrasts two ways of life: a life spent pursuing riches versus a life grounded in loving God and giving generously.  In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrases Proverbs 11:28 like this: “A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.”

      What a picture!  Two ways of life: one flourishing and fruitful, one hollow and barren.  The world insists that material abundance equals “the good life.”  In contrast, God invites us to be rooted in Him, to experience His goodness, and to flourish fruitfully.  And as we’re shaped by our relationship with Him, God reshapes our hearts and desires, transforming us from the inside out.