WHEN THE ROOT REMAINS.

WHEN THE ROOT REMAINS

Many years ago, my father, of blessed memory, planted a mango tree out front. Without much ado, the tree sprouted and some yummy succulent mangos began to spring forth. As a matter of fact, the fruits hung so low we just needed to stretch forth and pluck them off the tree. Members of our household would scramble to get there first and pick the biggest ones. Then suddenly, without any warning and for reasons that I never figured out, our once ever so fruitful mango tree stopped bearing fruit. Well, we never cut the tree, though it was often painful and sometimes annoying to see it in all it’s glory yet without fruit. And as the years wore on, we would give the tree a good trim and before long the leaves would bloom again, but we never got the fruits back like before.

A few days ago, I stepped out of my car which I sometimes park close to the mango tree and behold, just sitting there on the ground,  a lovely succulent juicy looking mango. I screeched in delight. I called the gardener and asked him when last he saw any fruits from the tree, he said every once in a while fruits would fall but they would either be over ripe or the birds would have pecked all the juiciness out of them. And very few times one or two lonesome ones would be plucked before they fell to the ground.

Then, as the day wore on I was reminded of the story of King Nebuchadnezzar, in the book of Daniel, who did not acknowledge God as the source of all that he had achieved. And though God warned him of the consequences of being proud, he still did not repent, and just as was predicted,  he was dehumanised and banished to live in the forest just like other wild animals. However in the dream, where he had been forewarned it was commanded thus: “But leave its stump and roots in the ground, surrounded by grass and held by chains of iron and bronze. Make sure that this ruler lives like the animals out in the open fields, unprotected from the dew.” Daniel 4:15 Contemporary English Version.  The reason for this instruction was later revealed. “But the stump and roots of the tree were left in the ground. This means that you will receive your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.” Daniel 4: 26 NLT

My point here is this: This year 2020 thus far, has been a most unusual year and has been challenging in different ways for different people. I perceive that the ultimate challenge is the physical death. A physical death represents being uprooted. That means there will not be a restoration here.  That is “The End” of our sojourn here. If we have survived the year 2020 thus far, we are blessed and we should not take it for granted. Let us remember that we are not better than those who succumbed to the COVID 19. We are just partakers of Divine Mercy. The bottom line is that if we are still alive, trust me great things can and will still happen to us. But we must stay rooted to our God and acknowledge that He is Almighty.

Our mango tree still brought forth fruits after many years of partial barrenness.

Nebuchadnezzar was restored as king after seven years, when he repented.

I have no idea what you have lost in the past ten moths or there about. If you are still here God can restore.

I do not know how many years you have been waiting to have that precious fruit of your womb, if you are still alive today, God can still make it happen.

Perhaps your shop was looted and the hoodlums made away with priced goods. Remember the Lord who made it all happen in the first place will restore all you lost.

And even if sadly, you have to start all over again, please dear one, do not give up. You have not been uprooted. There is still hope. You will yet bring forth fruit. As it is written, “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes  9:4 KJV

And if you lost a loved, please be comforted by the words from this hymn:

“On that happy Easter morning

All the graves their dead restore:

Father, sister, child and mother,

Meet once more.”

On The Resurrection Morning – Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 – 1924)

Dear friends, we are still here. And though some have gone before us, we will meet on the resurrection morning.

We have not been yanked out by the root.

Some of us have been ravaged by the storms of this year but still our root remains and it will still bring forth fruit.

“And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:” Isaiah  37:31

 

OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©