Schist

Friday 3/22/2013 4:56 AM

Two images described believers in my reading today.  Psalm 1 describes the blessed man who trusts in God as a fruit tree planted by streams of water and 1 Peter 2 describes him as a living stone, being built into a spiritual house.  Both descriptions bring to mind an image of something unmoving that supports others, the tree by producing fruit and the stone by supporting the others built upon it.

At the moment I feel neither unmoving nor able to support others.  I feel like a deciduous tree in the midst of winter, whose sap has withdrawn to the roots showing no sign of life to an outside observer.  If I am a stone I feel like schist, crumbling and flaking under any kind of pressure or contact.

As I contemplated those images the Spirit of God reminded me that deciduous trees bud with new life in the spring as the daylight hours increase and the days become warmer.  The Spirit also reminded me that schist is a metamorphic rock, one that changes over time because of exposure to heat and to pressure.

The Spirit of God is at work in me, morphing me into the image of Christ.  He reminded me today that this work requires the same things required in nature: heat, pressure and time.  Rather than feeling discouraged at times like this I should remember the work of God doesn’t stop, and the flaking and deadness I feel now could easily be a sloughing off of my sinful nature, readying me to be clothed with Christ.  I need patience to see the process through to the end.