Growing in a season of stop

Every year I like to decorate our house ready for Easter and in pride of place I always have an Easter tree. It is made from the branches of trees from our back garden and I decorate it with different hanging eggs I have collected through the years.

This year I put the tree up not long after going into our 12 week isolation as I thought it might cheer the house up a bit.

Over the last couple of weeks as our family had been forced into a season of stop – it was amazing to watch how  buds on my Easter tree has grown and leaves have started to unfold bringing bursts of bright green into the room.

I have also enjoyed watching as our garden has been filled with returning birds, and I have seen flowers and plants come to life once again . I even saw a story in the news this week about mountain goats coming down from the great Orme and taking over the town of Llandudno!

Often in times of busyness I’m known to utter the phrase ‘Stop the world, I want to get off!’ At the moments it feels like the world as we know it has stopped and it is not a nice feeling at all!

In many ways however the world still marches on. Spring is here, nature is coming back to life and Easter Sunday’s coming!

I have been challenged over the past week to consider how I will use this time that I have. There is a great temptation to stay paralysed in fear clinging to the safe space of inaction until all of this is gone and life goes back to some sense of ‘normal’. However as a great woman of the faith challenged me the other day – How are you going to use this time to grow in faith and grow the church?

I was reminded of a bible verse that I often used to skip by when reading the book of Romans because it sounds too much like hard work… but maybe now is the time to read it and do it! Romans 5:3-5 says

But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. ⁴ And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope. ⁵ And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!

The secret of my sprouting Easter tree is the water that it is sitting in – it needs feeding in order to grow. Psalm 1 reminds us that in order for us too as Christians to grow we need feeding from the living water.

Psalm 1:1-3

What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways!
He won’t walk in step with the wicked,
nor share the sinner’s way,
nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat.
² His pleasure and passion is remaining true to the Word of “I Am,”
meditating day and night in the true revelation of light.
³ He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree
planted by God’s design,
deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss,
bearing fruit in every season of his life.

I just love the phrase in the passion translation that says that he will bear fruit in every season of his life….Even in a season of ‘stop.’ We must commit to walking with God and meditating on him whatever we may be facing.

At this present time we are not only in a season of stop, but we are in the season of new life brought by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. There is no better time to grow than at this time.

The Easter tree has always been a symbol of hope for me and this year all the more so. What better way to grow through this time than grow in hope. As Romans 15:13 says

Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!