The Ultimate Horseman's Digest ... naturally!

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Written By Mary O’Connell
Edited by Erin O’Connell

I cried out to the Lord, I thought I was going to break! NO MORE PRESSURE PLEASE!

There was a tree; on the tree I saw a very delicate looking teeny tiny brittle branch. The bark of the branch looked all dried out and brittle. As I identified with the branch I cried out to the Lord, Lord if that branch stretches out anymore it will surely break! As I watched the tree a gust of wind blew, a winter storm was brewing just in time for Christmas and I cried out to the Lord once more, Please Lord if any more pressure is applied to the teeny tiny little branch it will surely break.

There is a tree in my backyard that often catches my attention. As I routinely do my kitchen chores I gaze out my window to see the trees life portrayed before me. Are the trees, which fill my yard, peering in at me I wonder? Do they see my growth? Do they watch me through my seasons? What could we possibly have in common?

The wind blew hard, sleet and freezing rain hit against my window. With worry I watched how the storm was affecting the tree and its teeny tiny brittle branch. The very branch that once stretched out over my yard to cast its shadow on the ground was now shrinking being covered with a thick coating of ice. The ice storm came and the teeny tiny little branch bent, and bent and bent under the weight of the ice and snow until it was bowed down very low. It’s tiny form, although beautiful in it’s reflection of the ice storm was bitter sweat as it was a crystal covered coldness that held it so firmly to the ground. But still it did not break.

Days later I once again looked out my kitchen window to take notice of the tree with the teeny tiny little branch. Finally the sun came out from behind the clouds and I was glad because the branch sprang back up from the storm victoriously. Because it had been such a destructive ice storm I called on the woodsman to come and tend to the trees in my yard.

I watched him as he surveyed the tree with the teeny tiny little branch. He saw the branch and grabbed hold of it. He bent the limb back and pulled on it, he twisted it and ripped through its bark, which to me appeared brittle, but in the hands of the woodsman it was supple and vibrant. Before my very eyes I saw the woodsman peel back the layers of the branch to expose the green sinews of its life unto its very core. Then the woodsman took the tiny branch and twisted it and pulled at it a bit more but to my surprise through all of this the tiny little branch still did not break.

When the woodsmen realized that this branch was a living branch he knew it would be too difficult to tear form the tree, he dressed the bark and He released the teeny tiny brittle branch and it sprung back up with a rustling swoosh to join the other branches. Now the entire tree’s branches even the smallest reached upwards towards heaven as if to praise God.

Then the woodsman disappeared into the greenery to find dead or fallen branches and that, which was in need of pruning. He gathered all the kindling and brush from the yard, and that day He made a big fire, the smoke of it billowed up high into the sky where the teeny tiny branch saw the cloud and wondered
at it.

The storms of life sometimes come when it seems to be the worst of times for them to appear. But as this story portrays though I may feel like a teeny tiny brittle branch on the tree, through the eyes of faith I am, in actuality, connected to a very strong and vibrant living base, which is the life of Christ within me. Though storms brought tremendous pressure the little branch did not break, though bowed down low it could not be torn away from the tree. This was due to the branch being an extension of the tree itself. The sustaining life of the tree is a picture of the vine and the branches. In time prayerfully spent with Jesus I learned feelings are not always an accurate gauge of where I think I am at spiritually. I thank God for His truth, His word and His grace to put my feet on the right path with an accurate knowledge of where I am in Christ Jesus, which the truth of His word so graciously and mercifully reveals.

IISB NIV: John 15:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire to be burned. If you remain in me and my words in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Fathers glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my diciples. As the Farther has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.

STONG’S Exhaustive Concordance

Nt #288 [A VINE] as coiling about a support.

#289 a vine worker, pruner

#290 vineyard

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