I Can Hear It In The Trees...

One of the many pleasures that we enjoy about camping is living in the great outdoors.  You tend to get a vibrant feel for nature and the interactions of the trees, the animals on the ground and the birds that fly around them and then soar way up into the sky until they become as tiny dots against the back drop of the bright blue textures that stretch as far as the eye can see.  As I read in the Word this morning, I was reminded of one of the special moments that comes just about every afternoon while camping at 5500 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at Plumas Eureka State Park.

Isaiah 55:12 in the New American Standard version declares “For you will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.  The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”  In the late afternoon the wind begins to pick up and come down from the surrounding mountains into the camp below.  You can usually hear it long before you feel it.  It begins as a slight timbre in your ears and then grows into a crescendo of muted symbols as the wind flutters through the leaves of the Quaking Aspens scattered throughout the floor of the forest.  It is as if, like the Prophet described so poetically in Isaiah 55:12, that the trees of the field are clapping their hands.    In the summer months it is a warm breeze that saunters through the forest and eventually breaks through into the open areas of the campground, bringing with it an enjoyable relief from the heat of the mid-day sun.  For me it is a great time to sit back in a camp chair, close my eyes and recall the fun-filled activities of the day and the goodness of God who made all the beauty that surrounds me.

According to Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Isaiah is giving us a vivid picture of the grace of God in this chapter of his book.  His is foretelling of the life of the Christian who puts his or her uncompromising trust in the Lord and the truth of His Word.  Like we talked about over the last couple of days, there will come seasons of change where we will learn new lessons, possibly go through some wet and rainy times, but come through refreshed and renewed as we continue along the paths that He has planned for us to walk.  Isaiah informs us that even in the tough times that we can “go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.”  The word “peace” is the Hebrew word “shalom” which incorporates the sense of completeness, health, prosperity, tranquility and soundness in body.” (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions).  As someone once said, it means “nothing broken, nothing lost!”

Then, as we walk through life we can look around us and it will seems as though the very “mountains and hills will break into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands” in their joy for you and for the glory of God!  When you’re out in the middle of a serene and gorgeous forest it is very easy to see this verse in motion about you.  When you’re at work, stuck in traffic, or in the midst of family tensions, it may be a little harder to see, but it is still there non-the-less!  I guess that it is all about the attitude that you keep. It is important for us to hold the attitude of success in our minds as we center our thoughts and our trust in the loving, faithful hands of the Lord.

I may not always be able to be in the beautiful Plumas National Forest, but I can always carry the thoughts of it’s beauty, it’s floral and fauna and the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees causing them to clap their hands in joy as they magnify the greatness of our God.  Sometimes it is the only thing that I have to hang onto in the midst of what I don’t (yet) see happening around me.  But it is a remembrance and a “shalom” peace given by the solemn promise of what He says that He IS doing for me!  Give it a try this weekend, and allow His peace and His joy to carry you though to victory!  Have a wonderful weekend.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What GOOD THINGS am I expecting today?”