Green Leaf in Drought Time

On my way home from the school this morning, I stopped to say hi to Melvin. He was dressed as usual in his cowboy hat and shirt and was collecting his trash cans from the roadside by his little house.

I rolled down my window and asked had he noticed the dead trees scattered here and there among his woods. He had and was surprised how many there were following our particularly dry summer.

Otherwise tall, good-looking trees, some even oaks with spreading limbs fully leafed out for the summer, are now standing dry, dead brown. There are big pine trees, normal looking, except that they stick out as completely red-brown among the green, leafy trees of the forest or at the side of the road.

I got a surprise too. But you know, you can't tell by looking whether a tree or a person is rooted, until the drought comes. If we don't have our lives rooted deeply in Jesus and His Words, we are going to be just like those trees, when the hard times come upon us.

"Uhh...huh, that is so!" he agreed, soberly shaking his head side to side.

I asked if he were born again, and sadly he gave me the Bible Belt answer, "I was raised in the church."

"No," I said, "I mean, do you love Jesus? Do you know Him and are your sins washed away?"

"Well..." he said, adjusting his garbage cans. Just then a car pulled up behind me and I had to drive on.

Dear Father, capture Melvin's heart, and make Him your child. And may I be so rooted and grounded in Jesus that my leaves always stay green even in drought time.